Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Early Permits for Agriculture, Industry, and Transportation

Within a few years after the establishment of LARO, livestock posed a considerable trespass problem for federal land managers. Large areas between the high water level and the 1,310 line had grasses suitable for grazing, attractive to cattle on adjoining lands. It was also attractive to the ranchers and farmers who viewed the vacant, unfenced land as available for free use. Reclamation and the Park Service discussed ways to deal with the problem, including increased patrols, asking county commissioners to establish herd districts, and securing public cooperation through education. Initially, LARO was reluctant to consider opening these lands for grazing since much of the shore land was already overgrazed by cattle. After consideration, however, Greider concluded that grazing could be allowed below the 1,310 line in certain areas, with the stipulation that the tracts be fenced to prevent animals from wandering onto adjacent government land. He believed that containing the livestock would enable LARO to control both overgrazing and noxious weeds. Greider also suggested that some of the best agricultural lands along the shore could be leased for gardens. [10]

Farm bordering LARO, 1957. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.FS).

LARO considered the bottomland along the Kettle River as "an extreme public nuisance" at the time the agency took over administration. The unfenced area was overgrazed and infested with noxious weeds, causing neighboring farmers to complain. Individual leases did not seem feasible, so the Park Service signed a long-term lease for seventeen hundred acres in January 1948 with the Kettle-Stevens Soil Conservation District, which then subleased the land to the Kettle River Grazing Association. After the Soil Conservation Service drew up rehabilitation plans, farmers undertook the work of fencing and building up the land with legume crops. The Park Service charged just a token fee for the first four years to encourage the work, then began charging in 1952 at the rate of fifty-five cents per animal per month for grazing. By that time, the Park Service believed the program to be a success for both the government and for the lessees. "It is enabling the National Park Service to maintain a normal farm picture along the Kettle River at a minimum cost to the government, and places the area under close administrative control," wrote LARO's Chief Ranger. The lease ran through 1957 and then was renewable on an annual basis for another ten years. [11]

The OIA was particularly concerned with keeping open options for industrial and agricultural uses of lands in the Indian Zones. The agency knew the abundant timber on the reservations provided a source of revenue for the tribes, supplying area mills with an annual cut of at least thirty-five million feet. Because the tribes depended on this income, OIA insisted that recreation planning at Lake Roosevelt not interfere with the development of the timber industry on the reservations, including log dumps, transportation of logs and lumber on the lake, and milling beside the lake. When the Park Service tried to shut down a log dump at Sanpoil Bay in 1943 due to its location at a proposed recreation site, OIA was quick to disagree. The two agencies sparred over this site but resolved the general issue three years later when the Tri-Party Agreement gave OIA responsibility for permitting log dumps in the Indian Zones at sites selected in consultation with the Park Service. Livestock grazing also was important to the tribes and formed a major use of shore lands adjoining the reservations. [12]

Sawmill at the South Marina site, November 1956. This was one of several sawmills that were granted permits to operate along Lake Roosevelt. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center (HFC WASO-B-343).

The Park Service kept industrial needs in mind when formulating early plans for the development of Lake Roosevelt. Kearney identified three areas for concentration of industrial uses: from Spring Canyon to Plum, the mouth of Hawk Creek, and the original townsite of Kettle Falls. He also suggested that industries would want to use water transportation for both raw materials and finished products. Lincoln Lumber Company already operated a mill at Hawk Creek in 1941, and within three years there were three more mills running beside the lake. The lumber industry boomed after the end of World War II, and the forests around Lake Roosevelt were harvested heavily. There were twenty-seven permitted logging uses in 1948, and by 1951 demand was so high that some dumps had to serve two operators. [13]

While the Park Service was willing to grant permits for industrial use of federal lands, the agency also had to deal with the resulting downside of permits — encroachments and trespasses. The post-war increase in logging brought problems of trespassing on government lands at LARO, an issue that has plagued land managers since. The OIA told the Park Service of timber trespass at Cedonia, Fall Creek, and other locations in the fall of 1945, where loggers evidently had ignored the need for a permit and cleared the reservoir shore for use as landings. By December the loggers sent a check for $98.20 to the Park Service to cover 19,640 feet of pine logs taken, valued at $5 per thousand board feet. Two years later, Superintendent Greider ruled that a Deer Park lumber company's cutting of 65,000 board feet on recreation area lands appeared to be accidental, based on an error in running the boundary line, and he assessed the company $295. When the same company trespassed again in 1955, the Park Service recommended a fine of double the stumpage rate. [14]

The long body of calm water formed by Grand Coulee Dam offered opportunities for transportation, with tugboats and barges providing a convenient means of moving logs and lumber for the growing timber industry. One of the first to enter this market was Albert "Cap" Lafferty, an experienced operator who had been running tugs on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho since 1918. He was quick to see the potential at the new Columbia River Reservoir and received his certification from the Interstate Commerce Commission in August 1941. After the Great Northern Railway agreed to extend its line to the lakeshore at Kettle Falls, Lafferty established his headquarters there. The Park Service gave him a special use permit in November 1943 to build barges at a site on the south bank of the Spokane River. The following year, Reclamation signed leases with Lafferty for a spur track at the Kettle Falls bridge as well as a tugboat terminal near Lincoln Lumber Company. [15]

Problems arose within a few years. Although both Reclamation and the Park Service approved Lafferty's request in 1945 to build employee housing at the terminal in Kettle Falls, by April 1947 Greider told Lafferty that he would have to remove the temporary housing, contending that LARO had approved neither the location nor the sub-standard construction. Lafferty agreed to comply with Park Service regulations, but Greider was unimpressed. "By his evasive actions over a long period, we feel he has no intention of complying," Greider wrote. "His promise of cooperation . . . is empty of any sincerity." Evidently the Park Service had been watching Lafferty's lease for some time but did not want to make an issue of it until the agency gained full jurisdiction over the recreation area. Once this happened, Greider moved to resolve it speedily, hoping to demonstrate to others that the Park Service had the courage to enforce its lease provisions. [16]

The issue was not resolved quickly, however. After receiving no response from Lafferty, Greider cancelled the lease in August 1947. At that time, the tug company had not only retained the three shacks that the Park Service found objectionable but had also added a fourth building plus a six-hundred-foot access road across federal land. Lafferty complained that LARO was "very abrupt" with its cancellation and was not taking into account the dismal economic climate that limited his ability to develop his business properly. He asked for a continuation of the lease. Through inaction, the office of the National Park Service Director effectively granted an extension, causing Greider to complain three months later that the delay was "developing into an acute situation" for LARO, and he asked the regional office to intervene. Greider was feeling under siege at this time, hampered by lack of funding for the recreation area yet pushed by local residents who wanted immediate development. Lafferty's lease was one more stress he did not need. "Possibly age and fiscal uncertainties are finally making me edgy," Greider confided to Regional Director Herb Maier. He continued:

Unloading lumber from barge at Lafferty Transportation Company docks at Kettle Falls, 1955. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center (HFC WASO-B-350).

But delays of so many different kinds with relation to this area have created an explosive condition with relation to the public. Any one of a number of fuses might touch off the works if the match is applied. One way to forestall this is to keep a tight check rain [sic] on uncooperative elements by demonstrating efficient operation — such as it is. [17]

Lafferty appealed the final cancellation of his lease in January 1948 and was told he would have to reapply to Greider for a new lease. Instead, after various discussions, LARO bypassed Lafferty and leased the land to the Great Northern Railway, which then subleased to the tug operations. Greider was relieved: "I feel that the Great Northern can handle Mr. Lafferty just as effectively as we can with much less controversy." [18]

A number of individuals applied to LARO for permits to install water pumps, for both domestic use and irrigation. In addition to the Park Service permit, they also had to get a permit from the state for the amount of water to be withdrawn. Some installed pumps in trespass and when caught, they were encouraged to get the proper permits. Greider assured one such violator that LARO was "anxious to cooperate with any individual desiring to make proper use of Coulee Dam Recreational Area." Permits could be approved quickly if their locations did not interfere with planned recreational use. By 1947, however, Greider began to have concerns about future impacts from these leases. Although there were only nine permits or leases for pumps at that time, he foresaw potential problems if people claimed that a state permit gave them a right to use federal land. LARO continued to issue these permits, however, and water withdrawal systems have caused few problems for LARO over the years. They remain one of the few special uses still allowed at the park. [19]