The Logjam at Priest Point
A long-standing practice of mooring logs in the Snohomish River clashes with federal authority, leaving local loggers caught in a bureaucratic net.
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.
As a result of the recent conversation with Dr. Marion, the Superintendent of the Tulalip Indian Reservation, it would be proper to state that he disclaims all personal influence whatever of others upon him in the recent orders relating to the mooring of logs at Priest Point. The difficulty arises in a certain sense from the loggers and Superintendent, each misunderstanding the position of the other. It seems that ever since 1864, logs have been moored there without objection, until loggers looked upon it as an undoubted right to so secure the logs from this river; yet notwithstanding this long use, the Superintendent has an undoubted legal right to order the loggers to cease such use unless they can show authority from Washington permitting it. The Superintendent sees that the enforcement of this order of his would work, to say the least, great hardship upon the loggers of the river, and wishes to have the matter permanently and satisfactorily settled by their procuring the requisite legal authority from Washington to use that part of the Reservation in such a manner as may be necessary to protect fully the loggers' interest. He pledges himself to aid and assist in procuring such an order, provided that the loggers of this river will make an effort themselves to obtain it. There is no doubt but what the Dr. intends to do justice in the premises; nor is there any doubt but what this method is the surest one to settle the whole question permanently and satisfactorily.
“The Superintendent sees that the enforcement of this order of his would work, to say the least, great hardship upon the loggers of the river.”
This 1870 dispute highlights a recurring tension in the Pacific Northwest: the intersection of industrial resource extraction and the jurisdictional sovereignty of Tribal lands. Today, navigating waterfront use and the rights of way on rivers remains a complex, high-stakes negotiation between local commercial interests and federal-tribal mandates.
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