The Lake, the Dam, and the Claims: A Calispel Water Fight
Calispel Valley ranchers say a Weeks claim misrepresents their land as a swampy lake—and omits the Rod and Gun Club dam that raised the water.
The ranchers in the Calispel valley are indignant about the contest filed against the Desart claims in Calispel Lake by A. L. Weeks, instead of A. S. Weeks, as stated last week. In his allegations he states that the land is covered by the waters of a swampy lake, but says nothing about the dam put in by the Calispel Rod and Gun Club that raises the water on the land 18 to 24 inches. Also the misstatement about there being no dwellings on the land.
“He states that the land is covered by the waters of a swampy lake, but says nothing about the dam put in by the Calispel Rod and Gun Club that raises the water on the land 18 to 24 inches.”
Water claims and dams still decide who gets to call a marsh a lake and who gets to keep dry ground; in the Calispell Valley, as across the West, the paper trail of water rights often matters more than the water itself. The fight also shows how a local club's dam could quietly rewrite a neighbor's legal landscape.
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