Farmer Chases Engineers Away with Barbed Wire
A landowner in the lower Yakima Valley defended his property rights in spectacular fashion, chasing an engineering crew off his land with a lasso of barbed wire.
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 irrigating ditch affairs in the lower end of the county are getting more lively with each succeeding week. An interesting episode is related as occurring only a few days ago, when an engineering corps went onto the land of a Mr. Black for the purpose of running lines. The owner ordered them off, but they paid no attention to him, and he left with the remark that he would 'soon fix ’em.' Shortly afterwards Black appeared mounted on a fiery cayuse and swinging a rope to which was attached a long strand of barbed wire. Running his horse into the group of men he scattered them right and left and chased every one of them off of the field with the exception of Engineer Fairfowl, and then taking after that gentleman he ran him for more than a mile with the dreaded barbed wire swishing around his heels at every jump.
“Running his horse into the group of men he scattered them right and left and chased every one of them off of the field with the exception of Engineer Fairfowl.”
Water rights and land access have defined Yakima's economy since the irrigation era began. This incident shows the raw, physical volatility that accompanied the formal legal disputes over who controlled the water.
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