A New Town Held Up in Washington: Sullivan Creek Waits on the Interior Department
The Sullivan Creek townsite is nearly ready for market, delayed because the land fell inside Secretary Ballinger's water-power withdrawal — and a brick plant is already on its way.
It is reported that the new town site at Sullivan Creek will be ready to be placed on the market about the middle of May. There has been some delay in securing title from the Interior department, as the land to be occupied by the townsite was included in the recent water power withdrawal by Secretary Ballinger. The matter is now about arranged. A brick making plant was shipped to Sullivan Creek this week, the proprietor expecting to be on the ground in good season.
“There has been some delay in securing title from the Interior department, as the land to be occupied by the townsite was included in the recent water power withdrawal by Secretary Ballinger.”
A townsite could not be sold until Washington, D.C., surrendered title, and here the land was caught in one of the era's great public-lands fights — Richard Ballinger's withdrawal of water-power sites from private entry. The brick plant arriving before the lots could be sold captures the speculative rhythm of Western town-building. The same tension between federal land policy and local development still shapes the rural Northwest.
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