The Fight Over the Wishkah River
Prominent landowners seek an injunction to halt the surveying and platting of tide lands, citing concerns over potential river obstruction and property rights.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Yesterday a suit was brought in the superior court by Alex. Young, C. E. Perkins and James Stewart to enjoin the board of appraisers from surveying, appraising and platting the tide lands of the Wishkah river. Judge Irwin issued a temporary restraining order against the board, and fixed the 22nd for hearing for a temporary injunction. From Mr. Cross, attorney for plaintiffs, we learn that the principal points relied upon by them are: That the riparian proprietors of the Wishkah river had, at the time of the adoption of the constitution, vested rights in such river; that the Wishkah river does not come within the provisions of the constitution regarding tide lands; that the harbor line commission acted without authority of law in attempting to locate harbor lines in such river; that the board of appraisers are acting beyond its jurisdiction in surveying, appraising and platting the tide lands of the Wishkah river; that to follow the survey of the tide land commission would be to create a nuisance in the river; that to survey and plat the lands claimed as tide lands would be to take private property without due process of the law. The nuisance referred to would consist of possible wharves and factories extending to the middle of the river, so that in places there might be little, if any, river left between the outer lines of tide land, if the law was strictly followed.
“To survey and plat the lands claimed as tide lands would be to take private property without due process of the law.”
This 1894 legal battle highlights the early, often messy process of defining public versus private ownership of Washington's waterways. Even today, the rights to use the 'wet' lands of the Wishkah River remain a point of friction between developers, environmentalists, and historical property claimants.
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