The $1-an-Acre Tip: How Washington's School Timber Was Sold Cheap
A legislative investigation hands the attorney general evidence that well-connected buyers used paid cruisers to lowball the value of the state's school lands — with a wink and a dollar an acre.
SEATTLE — The Legislative investigation committee has placed at the disposal of the Attorney-General several special reports made by its agents, who were employed to look into deals in state timber lands.
These special reports, which are partly included in the general report to Gov. Hay, give, more in detail, the means used by purchasers to obtain valuable timber lands from the state at ridiculously low figures. One of the deals investigated was a purchase made by Joseph O'Neill, of Castle Rock.
The information furnished the committee was given by C. W. Taylor, of Castle Rock. Noting in 1901, he states, that several friends of Mr. Ross, at Castle Rock, were getting possession of state timber lands at extravagantly low figures, according to his personal knowledge of the timber values involved, Mr. Taylor decided to take advantage of Ross' power and influence in a roundabout way. He proposed to O'Neill, whose office in Castle Rock adjoined his own with a communicating door, that if O'Neill, through Ross, would secure a minimum cruise of the timber on two quarter sections of state land, of which he knew the full value, he, O'Neill, should buy one and Taylor the other. He showed his personal cruises to O'Neill. The proposal was agreed to.
It seems to have been the practice at this time, in order to insure law appraisement on state land, for the applicants to tip those cruisers who were pliable, at least $1 an acre.
“It seems to have been the practice at this time … for the applicants to tip those cruisers who were pliable, at least $1 an acre.”
Washington's school lands were set aside to fund education for every taxpayer, but insiders with influence over state timber cruisers got first pick at a fraction of their worth — a pattern that shaped who controlled the state's forests. The same question echoes today, when Department of Natural Resources timber sales and land swaps still ignite fights over who truly benefits from public ground.
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