The State Claims the Cedar River Timber
A last-minute state filing on timber lands near Cedar Lake leaves dozens of hopeful homesteaders empty-handed.
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.
When the land office was opened for the filing of locations on township 23 north, range 8 east, on Friday morning, the crowd of anxious settlers was dismayed by the filing of claims on behalf of the state for the whole township. The land is good timber and agricultural land along Cedar river just below Cedar lake, and every quarter section had its squatter, who was only waiting for it to be opened to make his filing, and some claims had several claimants. The exercise by the state of its right to sixty days' option shuts out all the timber claimants, and even where a claim is clearly agricultural land, the settler will have to prove his residence by two witnesses. By this stroke the state secures in one block within a few miles of the Green River & Northern branch of the Northern Pacific road 23,000 acres.
“The crowd of anxious settlers was dismayed by the filing of claims on behalf of the state for the whole township.”
This story highlights the historic conflict between individual homesteaders and large-scale public land management. It reflects the broader era of land grab and resource extraction that shaped the geography of Washington State.
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