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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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How a dense forest on Fidalgo Island transformed into a booming railway terminus and industrial hub in less than twelve months.
“The site for the city was platted and dedicated January 15, 1890, since which time the growth of the place has been so remarkable that outside of Washington it would be considered a miracle.”
A prominent Seattle Republican dies while boarding a steamer, leaving behind a legacy of real estate speculation and a massive public deficit investigation.
“Captain Hill denied the defalcation and suits were in progress looking to the recovery of the money at the time of his death.”
A grocery store owner in Anacortes is murdered in his home by a man known as 'Charley Sam,' sparking threats of vigilantism in the community.
“The crime, coming on the footstep of the anti-Chinese agitation in this city, has raised the cry of 'lynch him,' but the cooler heads will doubtless prevent any unwarranted interference with the law.”
After posing as a moral reformer, the mayor of Anacortes was unmasked as a forger who threatened suicide to cover his tracks.
“If you insist on exposing me, I will blow out the brains of both of you and then my own, for I do not care to live any longer as a disgraced man.”
A complex five-day trial over the Fidalgo Island land deal concludes as the court rules the formation of the Fidalgo Land Company did not absolve investors of their debt.
“Judge McBride found that neither Stacey nor Collins had consented to the new company, and consequently the deed to the company was a nullity.”
A speculative report on a new settlement near Fidalgo Island that promised to control the wealth of the Snohomish and Skagit valleys.
“We know nothing about the intentions of the townsite owners... yet this we do know, that the resources of these sections are such that such a road... would be self-sustaining from the start.”
A confrontation on a Puget Sound steamer between a captain and an armed traveler reveals the wild and precarious nature of local maritime transport in 1886.
“My first impulse was to take his revolver from him and give him a good beating, but I kept my temper, and concluding that two wrongs never make one right, I did not disturb him.”
Federal authorities place a single, ill-equipped sailor on Smith's Island to guard against opium and immigrant smuggling.
“Friends here of the one sailor left at the new station are fearful lest some daring smuggler go ashore on the island some night and steal him, together with his pistol and provisions.”
Citizens launch an investigation into the district’s finances following a explosive public expose of school board mismanagement.
“It will either have the effect of clearing up many ugly rumors about school matters and thus relieve certain members of the odium resulting from rumors, or it will bring swift and sure punishment to the guilty culprits.”
The new Ballard schooner Lily and Maud broke up off Deception Island, and the crews of the Utopia and Justine could only watch.
“Never in Master O'Brien's life had he seen more agony than was visible in the faces of the two men he had tried to save.”
A locomotive fireman dies after a train plunges into a washout during the Great Flood of 1892.
“The streams along the line were swollen by the rains, and at a blind culvert... a washout had occurred.”
A secret 'Business Men’s Association' in Anacortes hatches a high-stakes campaign to pilfer the county seat from Mount Vernon, complete with paid-off laborers and promises of a grand courthouse.
“The citizens of this place have been looking with hungry eyes toward the big plum.”
A.P. Sharpstein steps down, accusing the city's powerful corporate interests of stifling growth and ignoring the needs of local citizens.
“To 'crook the pregnant hinges of the knee' to the chief tax payers does not, in my opinion, assure that 'thrift will follow fawning.'”
A freight steamer loaded with lime catches fire after hitting rocks in a thick Rosario Straits fog.
“The barrels of lime were already bursting and popping like big firecrackers. Great volumes of steam poured out of her as soon as the water entered, and before we got any distance away the flames shot up.”
A maritime guard single-handedly outwits smugglers in a high-stakes standoff on the islands of the Sound.
“Ipsen struck up a conversation by talking about the hardships of pioneering among the islands of the Sound, and soon had seen enough of the camp to be certain that there was opium there.”
A 14-year-old uses his training to save a drowning boy from the logs at the foot of 31st Street.
“Young Holman then directed other boys in administering first aid to the drowning and before physicians could reach the foot of 31st St.”
A simmering land-boom rivalry between Fairhaven and Anacortes turns violent on the docks.
“Such performances only show the desperate condition of the people of this real estate flare-up on Fidalgo Island.”
A boating trip on the Skagit river turns into a desperate struggle for survival when a squall capsizes a local family.
“The party having by this time drifted further into the stream, he finally became exhausted after battling most manfully with one of the treacherous eddies off the point of rocks, and sunk, never in life to rise again.”
A trio of thieves plundered a waterfront home and fled into the maze of islands, sparking a dramatic boat chase.
“The stolen articles were placed in a small boat and probably carried to one of the numerous hiding places among the islands.”
A small-town legal battle in Anacortes reveals how railroad companies and local governments clashed over the definition of 'rock' to dodge municipal assessments.
“If it should be decided that the council has the right to classify 'hard pan' as 'solid rock' it will be a victory for the contractors at the expense of the taxpayers.”
A skirmish at the docks reveals the intense, sometimes violent, professional bitterness between neighboring boom towns competing for status.
“The idea of an affair like that being a rival of Fairhaven is just ridiculous enough to be hilariously funny.”
A scathing report on how a railroad company attempted to keep massive public land grants despite failing to build the promised infrastructure.
“This company not only did not complete their road, but they never even began its construction.”
A mysterious morning fire consumes the Keystone Block, leaving behind only charred timber.
“The origin of the fire is a mystery.”
A shingle mill in Anacortes, once run as a cooperative, falls into chaos when workers strike over the firing of a colleague.
“The foreman, in substance, said it was none of their business, and then the employees insisted upon a reinstatement of the discharged man.”
A polymath pioneer of the Pacific Northwest and journalist who once worked for Horace Greeley has died in his home city.
“A considerable portion of this land he gave to the railroad company, and during the boom of 1890 he was looked upon as a very wealthy man.”
A rough winter crossing from Port Townsend to Friday Harbor turns into a life-or-death struggle against the unforgiving winds of the Straits.
“We frequently read of waves being mountains high, a pleasing poetic definition... in this storm the waves were estimated to be fully fifteen feet high.”
In 1893, a group of Anacortes boys turned beachcombing into a natural-history club with a constitution, dues, and an exhibition that drew the whole town.
“They have thus united themselves in a miniature republic, where no one is compelled to obey any mandate which is not the decision of the whole body.”
A Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizer spent July 1883 forming locals and gathering pledges in Coupeville, Ferndale, Semiahmoo and Anacortes.
“There is a growing determination to keep this beautiful island free from the curse of intemperance.”
A local fisherman makes an unexpected catch when he discovers a shark hooked on his halibut line.
“it appears that a dogfish had swallowed the bait and hook, and the shark in turn swallowed the dogfish.”
A local farmer fights back against hunters, arguing that quail are essential allies against cutworms and pests.
“When they were plentiful his garden and orchard were free from all injurious insects.”
Mary McTaggart, daughter of the founder of Lynden, passes away at her home in Anacortes at age 25.
“Mary McTaggart was the youngest of a family of four children. Her father and mother, Hon. and Mrs. H. A. Judson, now reside at Lynden, Whatcom county, which town Mr. Judson founded.”
Before the industry and the railroads took hold, Fidalgo Island was envisioned as a garden of prosperity for the growing city of Seattle.
“This land was originally what is known as the fir woods, but all are cleared away, and the beautiful open meadows, sloping to the water edge, are a grand sight.”
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