Thirty-Five Timber Claims Slip Away in LeClerc Basin
Federal land office rules against settlers whose white-pine homesteads are worth thousands; appeals go to the secretary of the interior.
Settlers in the LeClerc basin, whose patents were contested by the government land office and the hearings held in this city last spring, are receiving notice from the General Land Office that decisions adverse to them have been rendered. George Neff and Wm. Amsbaugh, of this city, who are among those contested, have received this notice this week, and doubtless others are receiving the same.
The claims in question are located in some of the best white pine timber in this section and are worth thousands of dollars. The only possible chance for a reversal of the decision in favor of the settlers lies in appeal to the secretary of the interior, and the case will be carried up to that official. About 35 claims were thus contested, and the settlers are up against the hardship of losing what has cost them much hard labor and hundreds of dollars spent on improvements.
“The settlers are up against the hardship of losing what has cost them much hard labor and hundreds of dollars spent on improvements.”
The LeClerc Basin cases are an early chapter in the Pacific Northwest’s long fight over who gets to keep timberland—small settlers or the government and the mills that followed. Appeals to the Interior Department remain a familiar route when a land decision threatens a family’s investment.
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