Who Owns the Waterfront?
A government land office ruling denies the use of Valentine scrip on Tacoma's harbor front, setting a major precedent for municipal control.
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 register and receiver of the United States land office at Seattle have rendered a decision that tide lands within the corporate limits of a city are not subject to location with Valentine scrip. In the matter of the application of Frederick W. Snow to locate Valentine scrip on the harbor front of Tacoma, they say that by the decision of assistant commissioner Stone, lands that lie between high and low water mark are public lands of the United States. But they find that the tract applied for is within the corporate limits of the city of Tacoma. This decision disposes of some forty applications for land in the corporate limits of Tacoma and Seattle.
“Lands that lie between high and low water mark are public lands of the United States.”
Tide lands were the site of immense wealth and legal ambiguity in early Washington. Modern urban planning and maritime zoning still grapple with the legacy of these early jurisdictional disputes over waterfront access.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.