Metaline Residents Fight Spokane Speculators for Their Townsite
A land-office contest in Spokane could cancel rival claims and clear the way for a government townsite at Metaline.
A number of Metaline people went to Spokane this week to attend the hearing at the U.S. land office of the contest of John Bettancourt against the application of Spokane parties for the scripping of the townsite. The Metaline people think that the result of the contest will be a denial of the claims of both parties, and that they will now be able to get a government townsite established. They expect to start the movement for a government townsite at once.
“The Metaline people think that the result of the contest will be a denial of the claims of both parties, and that they will now be able to get a government townsite established.”
The Metaline contest turned on who had the right to claim and sell the ground under a town—an early version of the land-use fights that still shape small communities. Then as now, outside capital and local residents could want very different futures for the same patch of ground.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.