Was Newport About to Become Idaho? A Federal Boundary Survey Raised the Question
A Senate committee advanced a bill to mark the 185-mile Washington-Idaho line, and Newport residents began to speculate that the border might move west—or that Idaho land might become Washington.
The United States Senate committee on lands has reported favorably on the bill of Senator Heyburn, of Idaho, to provide means to definitely mark the boundary line between Washington and Idaho, from the point where the Clearwater River flows into the Snake River to the British Columbia line, a distance of 185 miles. The bill will undoubtedly pass.
There is considerable speculation as to how the marking of this boundary will affect Newport, some claiming that the line will be shoved further west, and others claiming that some of Idaho's present territory will be found to belong to Washington.
“There is considerable speculation as to how the marking of this boundary will affect Newport.”
Boundary lines feel settled now, but in 1908 Newport residents could seriously wonder whether a federal survey would move Washington west or Idaho east. The episode is a reminder that state lines, jurisdiction and the resources they control were made by politics and measurement—not by nature.
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