The State Can't Find Its Land — and Timber Companies Got There First
A state land cruiser reports that Washington's 670,000-acre capitol grant is mostly poor land already claimed by squatters working for big lumber outfits.
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.
Chehalis Nugget: State Land Cruiser Geiger, who went out about three weeks ago, was in Chehalis last week on business. He was seen by the Nugget just before returning to Snohomish county, where he is now working. He says that he and Mossman, who are working together, are tolerably well satisfied with their job, though the work is hard and in some respects very disagreeable. Since they went out they have cruised about 2,000 acres for the state.
This land is of a very poor quality but is covered with fine timber. The good lands, Mr. Geiger says, have all been taken up by settlers long ago, as far back as the white man can penetrate. He says that much difficulty will be encountered before the state has secured its 670,000 acres. The lands selected are valuable for their timber, and most of them have been squatted upon by men, whom he believes are, many of them, in the employ of big lumber companies, and are holding the lands for them. He thinks that at least 90 per cent of the land selected will be contested by squatters.
“He thinks that at least 90 per cent of the land selected will be contested by squatters.”
The state's land grants — set aside to fund schools and the capitol — were the original public-resource bonanza, and this 1891 complaint about dummy squatters holding ground for timber companies is the ancestor of every modern fight over public timber, land swaps and who gets to profit from what belongs to everyone. More than a century later the question of who the state's land is really for has never fully been settled.
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