The Endless Track Dispute
A four-year legal battle over the 'Ram's Horn' railroad tracks continues to stall city development between Columbia and Marion streets.
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 extension of the ram's horn tracks across Columbia street to Marion street will not begin until the long-pending injunction suits between the Oregon Improvement Company and J. M. Colman are decided. When the controversy about this right-of-way began four years ago, Mr. Colman obtained an injunction against the construction of the tracks through the block between Columbia and Marion streets and between West street and the alley east of that thoroughfare. The Oregon Improvement Company retaliated by obtaining an injunction against the erection of a building on the disputed ground. Now that the supreme court has confirmed the ram's horn right-of-way, the Oregon Improvement Company will seek to have the injunction against itself dissolved and that against Mr. Colman made permanent. The case has been called up and will be heard on Friday.
“The extension of the ram's horn tracks across Columbia street to Marion street will not begin until the long-pending injunction suits are decided.”
The 'Ram's Horn' tracks were a pivotal piece of late 19th-century infrastructure, representing the dominance of railroad corporations over urban space. Like today's disputes over light rail expansion or public versus private utility rights, this story captures the friction between historical property rights and the needs of a growing city.
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