A Farmer Dams a Ditch, and Neighbors Build a Dike
In the town of Tolt, a landowner’s waterway blockade turns into a muddy standoff, with farmers throwing up dikes to keep their fields from flooding.
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 citizens of Tolt have been aroused to indignation by the action of Daniel O'Leary in closing a waterway which drains their land, and have thrown up dikes to prevent their farms from being flooded. About a year ago Mr. O'Leary boasted that he had closed the ditch because a certain neighbor had testified against him in the superior court. A few days ago the supreme court decided the case against Mr. O'Leary, and his neighbors think this has caused him to again close the water course.
When the ranchers found the water steadily rising over their land, and that the flood was due to the closing of the drain, they waited a few days for it to be reopened, and then turned out with shovels and began throwing up a dike to shut the water off their fields. The result will be that unless the obstructions are removed the whole flow will be turned on the property of the constructionist.
The farmers say they will protect their property, even if they have to build a dike ten or fifteen feet high.
“The farmers say they will protect their property, even if they have to build a dike ten or fifteen feet high.”
Water rights and drainage disputes are as old as Washington farming, and the Tolt standoff has a very modern ring: a neighbor using a legal victory as leverage, and farmers resorting to direct action to protect their land. The town of Tolt is now Carnation, but the tension between private obstructions and downstream neighbors remains familiar.
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