Seattle's 1889 Fight Over Tide Flats and Docks
As Washington prepares for statehood, a contentious battle emerges over who owns—and who profits from—the valuable tide lands bordering Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
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The lands covered and laid bare by the ebb and flow of the tide stand upon a difficult footing. While lands granted for educational purposes form an irreducible fund, the tide flats stand as state property not by express grant, but by implication. The question of whether the state has the power to confiscate the entire waterfront below the meander line, or if it must respect the 'vested rights' of individuals who have already made improvements on those lands, is a serious one. Those who have built docks and businesses on these flats without clear title argue that they have provided necessary city infrastructure. The state, meanwhile, may seek the value of these lands. It would be difficult to establish the justice or wisdom of the state simply seizing these improvements. If the state is entitled to the water front, let it assert those rights with deliberation. Any attempt by the constitutional convention to settle this once and for all would be destructive either of state interests or justice to individuals. It is far more appropriate for the legislature to appoint a commission to investigate the legal and material aspects of these tide lands before any final settlement is made.
“Whether the state will have the power to confiscate the entire water front of a city below high water mark... is a serious question. And an even more serious question is whether the state, if it possessed the power, would be morally justified in exercising it as against individuals who possessed what have always been considered vested rights.”
This debate from 1889 over the ownership and development of Seattle's tide lands mirrors the contemporary struggle over the city's waterfront, which remains a site of intense friction between public access, private interests, and industrial legacy. The 'vested rights' vs. 'public good' conflict regarding the waterfront continues to define Seattle's urban planning today.
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