The Battle for the LeClerc Creek Homesteads
After years of legal uncertainty, the Secretary of the Interior rules in favor of settlers against the Forest Service.
The Spokane land office has been upheld by Secretary of the Interior Ballinger in a decision rendered in Washington, D.C., on March 1, in which Alfred H. Mcinnis is given a clear title to his 160-acre homestead on the Pend Oreille River, in the Kaniksu National Forest. Ballinger has confirmed Mcinnis's title, though the validity was contested by the Forestry department after the homesteader had offered commutation proof and received a final certificate. It was found that Mcinnis had improved his property to the extent of $600, had lived on the land for two years and ten months longer than required, and had only left when his wife became too ill to remain. As a result, the charges of the forestry department that the entry was not made in good faith were not sustained. This is one of about 40 contests in the LeClerc Creek country started by the Forestry department. Had the charges been upheld, it would have meant the forfeiture of land and improvements after settlers had already secured government certificates of compliance. The Mcinnis contest was regarded as a test case, and land office officials feel that similar cases in the same reserve will be decided in favor of the settlers.
“A great deal of feeling against the Forest Service has been created by these contests, as the sympathy of the public has been with the settlers.”
This dispute highlights the early 20th-century tension between federal land conservation efforts and the individual homesteaders who sought to build lives in the Pend Oreille region. Today, these lands remain a focal point for debates over public land management and the rights of those living within the wildland-urban interface.
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