The Survey That Stalled Because the Homesteaders Weren’t Local Enough
A federal commissioner refused to order a Pend d’Oreille township survey after examiners questioned whether the applicants actually lived on the land.
Commissioner Ballanger, of the general land office, has written a letter to T. R. Major, chairman of the Stevens county commissioners, regarding the survey and opening of several townships in this county near the Pend d'Oreille river.
The letter is in answer to one sent by the board asking the department to cause the survey and inspection of T. 36 N., R. 41 E. W. M., and also the opening to entry of townships 35 N., R. 41 E. and 36 N., R. 42 E., surveyed, but not accepted. The status of the last surveys in townships 35 N., R. 41 E., and 36 N., R. 42 E., is unchanged.
The commissioner replied, stating that the examiner of surveys had submitted a report to his office as to his examination of the bona fides in 36-41, and recommended that the application be denied, because those asking for a survey were not bona fide residents of the township.
Township 35-41 was duly surveyed, but the examiner has not yet submitted his report.
The returns of the survey in T. 36-42 have been finished and the work examined, but the report has not yet been received at the general land office.
In the matter of the survey of T. 36-41, it is suggested that the settlers make application to the surveyor-general at Olympia, and include the names of the recent settlers in the new application. If found that a sufficient number of bona fides reside in the township the survey will be ordered.
“The commissioner replied, stating that the examiner of surveys had submitted a report to his office as to his examination of the bona fides in 36-41, and recommended that the application be denied, because those asking for a survey were not bona fide residents of the township.”
Public-land fraud and residency rules were a frontier obsession; today’s equivalent fights over who counts as a genuine local — for water rights, school districts or zoning — still turn on the same question. The township numbers have faded, but the bureaucratic gatekeeping is recognizable.
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