The Great Washington Land Grab
A federal investigation reveals how the Northern Pacific Railroad manipulated land office officials to claim 600,000 acres of prime territory in the Walla Walla Valley.
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.
An incident in the land office yesterday illustrates the methods of the railroad officials and how they have been favored by the land office during the time it was in the hands of Commissioner Harrison. The railroads appear to have enjoyed wonderful success. A week or ten days ago, General Sparks discovered an order of Harrison’s exempting 600,000 acres from the order throwing open the forfeited Texas Pacific lands to public entry. Yesterday he found another order which startled him: this order in effect granted the Northern Pacific Railroad over 600,000 acres of the richest lands in Washington Territory. The Northern Pacific Railroad has surveyed three lines in Washington Territory and has kept the lands bordering on these surveys out of the public market as long as possible. Five years ago, it definitely located its line, after having picked off the best land from those lines. The location of its final line was the secret of the land office during the last twenty years. The line runs through the Walla Walla valley, which is tributary to the flourishing city of Walla Walla. The railroad company has had no difficulty in selling the land in this valley, as it is very desirable. South of its definite location, the country has been settling very rapidly. The railroad, with its indefinite lines, has claimed nearly the entire country. It has sold a number of lands outside of the limits of its definite location in this valley. In the settlement of this country, these lands became so valuable that the railroad company has been trying to fix its location again so as to take in another wide area—in all, at least 600,000 acres.
“The Northern Pacific Railroad has surveyed three lines in Washington Territory, and has kept the lands bordering on these surveys out of the public market as long as possible.”
The Gilded Age struggle over the 'indefinite' land claims of the Northern Pacific mirrors the modern tension in Washington state regarding corporate developers' influence over public lands and housing. Just as settlers then found themselves priced out by the railroad's shifting boundaries, contemporary residents face similar power imbalances in the face of speculative land use and large-scale ownership.
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