The Great Tide Land Tug-of-War
Delegates at the Washington Constitutional Convention debate whether to reserve the state's waterfronts for the public or sell them to private interests.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Aug 13 — The great tide land question occupied the convention throughout the day. It was deemed advisable to take up the harbor line question before deciding what should be done with harbor grants. The article provides that the state should never sell or lease to any private person a certain area in front of cities, from 50 to 600 feet in width, within the limits.
One side is striving for state control, the other for municipal. The obvious intent is that the harbor fronts of all cities shall be regulated by a state commission, which shall establish uniform wharfage rates. The control of the reserve can never be vested in cities unless full compensation is paid. The lobby is here in force, and rumors have started that riparian owners in Tacoma have offered money to the Democratic central committee to secure influence in favor of private riparian interests.
“The state should never give, sell or lease to any private person, corporation or association any rights whatever in the waters beyond such harbor lines.”
This 1889 debate over whether Seattle's shoreline belongs to the public or private developers remains a foundational tension in the city's growth. The struggle to prevent total privatization of the waterfront eventually led to the creation of the Port of Seattle and the public access we see today at places like Myrtle Edwards Park.
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