Since his DLC Certificate was not issued until seven years after A. M. Poe's, Dan Harris may have learned from Poe that Lot 1 in Sections 2, including Deadman's Point, which he had assumed to be his, had been actually allocated to Poe. Dan wasted little time in approaching Poe with an offer to acquire the land in question and the sale was closed on August 13, 1861, just six weeks after the issuance of Poe's DLC Certificate. The deed for this transaction lists the purchase price as $53.75 and identifies the property as:

. . . being the north end of the Donation Claim of the Said Alonzo M. Poe . . . which is described . . . as Lot number Two (2) in section Eleven (11) in Township Thirty Seven (37) North Range 2 East of the Willemetta Maredian [sic] Containing Forty Three acres. . . . ⁶¹

    This deed contained a critical flaw. The forty-three acre parcel at the north end of the Poe claim was actually Lot 1 of Section 2 rather than Lot 2 in Section 11, which only contained 35.75 acres and was not contiguous with the Harris claim. Evidently this error was never corrected and it lay at the heart of the confusion about the ownership of the four acres that Whatcom County sought to purchase from Dan Harris for use as a cemetery.

    Dan Harris did subsequently acquire clear title to the Deadman's Point area from Arthur A. (for Armstrong) Denny on August 10, 1870. Denny had paid $375 for almost all of the Poe claim on May 5, 1870 to Americus N (for Napoleon) Poe, to whom his brother had quit claimed almost all of his claim on October 26, 1858. The conveyance from Denny to Harris correctly describes the property as Lot 1 in Section 2, Township 37 North of Range 2 East, gives and the size as forty-three acres and identifies the purchase price as $53.75. This consideration was identical with that given in the August 1861 deed from A. M. Poe to Dan Harris. ⁶²