Squatters on the Syndicate's Land: The Railroad Grant That Wouldn't Die
A state land cruiser found families settled on timber land now held by the Weyerhaeuser syndicate — all convinced the government would break the Northern Pacific's title and sell to settlers at $2.50 an acre.
SOUTH BEND — State Land Cruiser A. K. Wade reports that while at work in the upper North River country he found that a number of people had squatted on land in township 14, range 7, now owned by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Syndicate. This land was purchased by the syndicate from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and the people squatting on it are under the impression that the government will contest the present owner's title on the ground that the original grant to the Northern Pacific called for the sale of land to bona fide settlers for $2.50 an acre.
“The people squatting on it are under the impression that the government will contest the present owner's title on the ground that the original grant to the Northern Pacific called for the sale of land to bona fide settlers for $2.50 an acre.”
The belief that good land should go to the people who work it — not to the corporation that holds the deed — is one of the oldest arguments in the American West. It rhymes with today's fights over who controls timber, range and housing, and who gets to call a piece of ground their own.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.