The Salmon Bay Land Dispute
A court ruling strips a soldier's homestead claim, favoring university land selection.
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.
The suit of Anna S. Brygger against John Schweitzler for fifty-four acres on Salmon Bay concluded in Judge Lichtenberg's court. Schweitzler had claimed the land as a soldier's homestead, but Brygger’s claim was based on a purchase from a previous state land commissioner’s sale of university lands. The judge ruled that because the land had been selected for university purposes, it was never 'public land' open to homesteading. Schweitzler was denied title but granted $600 in compensation for his improvements.
“Judge Lichtenberg held that the land was not public land of the United States.”
Land use battles in Seattle often revolved around competing claims of federal homesteading versus state land grants, a precursor to today's complex regulatory environment regarding city development.
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