The Legal Trap of Unsurveyed Land
A legal clarification reveals that heirs of homesteaders on unsurveyed land in Washington may lose their claims entirely upon the settler's death.
A subscriber of The Ranch sends us the following query: 'If a party homesteads on unsurveyed land and dies before the land is surveyed, can his heirs hold the claim, provided the deceased has lived upon it as required by the laws governing homesteads?' The question was submitted to the register of the United States land office for this district. The register replies: 'If a party settles on unsurveyed land and dies before the survey, his heirs have no rights and cannot make the entry as the heir or heirs of the deceased squatter. Anyone of the heirs that may have been living there with him may make the entry individually, in his or her own name, for his or her own benefit and not for the benefit of any of the other heirs. The first actual settler on unsurveyed land has the prior right to the land, providing he makes his filing within ninety days of the filing of the plat.'
“If a party settles on unsurveyed land and dies before the survey, his heirs have no rights and cannot make the entry as the heir or heirs of the deceased squatter.”
This highlights the precarious nature of land tenure during the settlement era, where bureaucratic technicalities could strip families of their homes and livelihoods overnight, a stark reminder of the volatility of early land ownership in the West.
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