Who Owns the Shore? The Fight for Salmon Bay's Tide Flats

The board of state land commissioners, sitting as a court of appeals in the matter of hearing contests against applications to purchase tide lands that have been platted and appraised by the local boards of tide land appraisers, heard five separate cases in the rooms of the chamber yesterday. The cases were: Walter P. Sanderson vs. Thomas Winsor et ux.; Fleming Ayerst Company vs. Seattle & Montana Railway Company; Coast Improvement Company vs. Seattle & Montana Railway Company; West Coast Improvement Company vs. Fleming Ayerst Company; and the Seattle Cedar Lumber Company vs. O. J. Carr, trustee. The land applied for is all located in Salmon Bay at Ballard. In the Sanderson case both parties claimed the right to purchase by reason of being abutting owners of property on the upland. There was a question as to the rule to be laid down by the board in the division of tide land bounded by an irregular tract of upland. The case was taken under advisement. Another question was raised in this case which, however, did not cut much figure. Sanderson alleged that Winsor's earnest money was defective because he did not properly describe the land applied for, giving only three sides of the description. The objection was overruled on the ground that the description by lots and blocks, and the tracing which is made a part of the application, makes the description sufficiently plain. In the afternoon the next three cases in the order enumerated were consolidated and heard as one case. The railroad people claimed the right to purchase by reason of ownership from upland owners, and the Fleming Ayerst Company claimed prior right to purchase for the same reason, and the West Coast Improvement Company set forth its prior right to buy by reason of upland ownership. A good many witnesses were examined as to the lines, surveys, etc., between the several tracts in dispute, and a lengthy argument relative to the right of the Fleming Ayerst Company to purchase was made by the attorneys, it being alleged that the deed of conveyance of the upland owners was made to the company prior to the incorporation of the company. The board took this question under advisement. It was agreed among the attorneys interested that the Seattle & Montana Railroad has the prior right to purchase the tide land covered by its right-of-way. The West Coast Improvement Company was given the right to purchase all other lands embraced in the controversy, except those of which it had deeded away the littoral rights. In the case of the Seattle Cedar Lumber Company vs. O. J. Carr, trustee, the lumber company claims right to purchase by reason of upland ownership and improvements, as does also O. J. Carr. The question hinges largely on the alignment of the lands. The case will be continued today, there being two cases between the same parties, and the two will probably be decided at the same time. In this the contest was quite bitter, and a good many witnesses were examined, among others Clarence P. Bagley, E. S. Ingraham and A. F. McEwan.