Newport's Riverfront Changed Hands in a Single $25,000 Deal
C. P. Lindsley, president of Panhandle Lumber and the Pend d'Oreille River Navigation Company, bought 300 acres of timberland plus riverfront lots from Wm. Vane—and a steamboat company took a new name.
The Stevens County Abstract Company reports the recording on January 22nd of deeds from Wm. Vane to C. P. Lindsley of 300 acres of timber land in Secs. 7 and 18, Twp. 31, range 45; also lot 3 in 18-31-40 and lot 3, block 4 in Koch's Addition to Newport. Consideration $25,000. Mr. Lindsley in buying this property represented Blackwell interests, as he is president of the Panhandle Lumber Company and the Pend d'Oreille River Navigation Company. Mr. Vane also sold to the same interests his property along the river front and other property in Old Town on the Idaho side. The name of the Newport-Metaline Steamboat Company has been changed to Metaline Navigation Company, according to articles filed with the secretary of State at Olympia.
“Mr. Vane also sold to the same interests his property along the river front and other property in Old Town on the Idaho side.”
In 1908, a single $25,000 deal could move hundreds of acres of timber and a town's riverfront into the hands of one lumber-and-navigation interest. Newport's economy still turns on who controls waterfront and forestland—and whether outside capital treats those resources as an extractive asset or a public inheritance.
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