Twenty Thousand Acres vs. the River: Calispel Valley Takes Its Case to Congress
Farmers around Usk and Cusick organize a diking district and send a committee to Spokane to beg a rivers-and-harbors congressman for a dredge, a dike, and a federal appropriation.
A committee representing property owners of the Calispel valley in the neighborhood of Usk and Cusick, consisting of Messrs. Geo. H. Jones, J. W. Cusick and D. E. Rice, was in conference at Spokane Wednesday with Hon. Wesley L. Jones, congressman from this district. Mr. Jones is a prominent member of the rivers and harbors committee of the house of representatives, and has always taken a keen interest in the affairs and welfare of the people of this section.
The committee conferred with Mr. Jones as to the possibility of securing government aid in the matter of diking the valley, and were informed by him that the only manner in which same could be secured would be by getting an appropriation for dredging the river and diking the banks with the material taken out. Mr. Jones prepared a petition for residents of the valley to sign, which asks congress to appropriate money for the purpose of dredging from Lenora to Parker Mountain, a distance of 11 miles, and depositing the material taken out in the form of a dike to be four feet or more in height.
The petition sets forth that the river is encroaching on its banks, and that such work will be necessary to aid navigation, and at the same time would protect an area of 20,000 acres of productive land from loss by overflow. It would be necessary to carry material a distance of only 300 yards or less. Mr. Jones has promised to put forth his best efforts in behalf of the proposition. A meeting of the residents of the valley is called to be held at Cusick Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock for the purpose of considering the petition and securing signatures to it.
Some progress is being made by the residents of the Calispel valley with their diking projects. D. R. Atherton, representing the district just north of Cusick, went to Colville Wednesday to lay before the county commissioners the petition of the residents of that section for the establishment of a diking district, together with the necessary bonds for the holding of an election. The proposed district has been enlarged somewhat by adding territory in the neighborhood of Small's creek and the residents are pretty well united on the plan, realizing that diking is a necessity, and will well repay them. Another meeting of the residents will be held Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock at the school house for the consideration of plans.
“The petition sets forth that the river is encroaching on its banks, and that such work will be necessary to aid navigation, and at the same time would protect an area of 20,000 acres of productive land from loss by overflow.”
The Calispel Valley still floods, and the machinery the farmers invented here — a diking district, a bond election, a county petition, a congressman on the rivers and harbors committee — is essentially the same machinery Pend Oreille and Stevens County landowners use today. Then as now, the argument was framed as navigation aid so that the money could be spent protecting farmland. The 20,000 acres at stake are still farmed.
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