Railroad Land Grabs Threaten Whitman County Settlers
Homesteaders fight a corporate legal battle to save their farms from a massive Northern Pacific land grant interpretation.
A meeting of settlers in Whitman County was recently held at Colfax to discuss the best method of acquiring title to lands within the limits of the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The petitioners allege that the withdrawal of these lands from entry and settlement in 1880 was illegal. They further allege that if the company establishes title to these lands it intends to hold them for sale at from $5 to $10 per acre, which would destroy 'countless hard-earned homes,' and entail 'impoverishment and destruction upon countless hard-fisted settlers.'
“The situation to which these settlers are placed is one demanding prompt and ample relief.”
This battle over 'lien lands' highlights the long-standing conflict between federal land grants designed to incentivize corporate infrastructure and the actual people settling the frontier. It mirrors modern debates about corporate ownership of public resources and land equity.
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