Speculation and Contests Arise Over Columbia River Sands
Long-neglected riverbank lands near the Snake River junction are suddenly subject to legal contests as settlers rush to file desert land claims.
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.
Land along the Columbia river between the junction of the old Ainsworth and the mouth of the Snake was the subject of several contests filed at the land office yesterday. The land lies in the sandy section near the Northern Pacific railway, and until the movement of desert land filings a few weeks ago, was considered worthless. In years past, people rushed to file homesteads upon the river banks, but failing to find value, abandoned the holdings. Now that desert land filings are popular near Pasco, residents are once again looking for every piece of available land. These new contests seek to clear the record of previous, abandoned filings so that the land may be taken as desert claims.
“The land lies in the sandy section near the Northern Pacific railway, and until the movement of desert land a few weeks ago was considered worthless.”
This reflects the ongoing transformation of Eastern Washington through land speculation and irrigation schemes. The 'desert land' designation has been a consistent driver of settlement and ownership disputes in the Columbia Basin since the 19th century.
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