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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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After withdrawing a large sum of money for wages, a fruit farmer in the Hall’s Prairie area was shot by intruders in his own home.
“The victim recognized his assailants as two men he met on his way home yesterday afternoon.”
Washington and British Columbia celebrate the completion of the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad with silver hammers and toasts to a shared future.
“The line which divides the government of the United States and the Canadas is but an imaginary one.”
A brutal killing in Blaine leads to a cross-border legal battle as the accused is committed to custody in Victoria.
“I saw Mitchell strike Harris three or four times... it was covered with blood and hair.”
A long-time resident of Whatcom County faces deportation under the exclusionary Geary Act after failing to correctly register his presence.
“Deportation stares him in the face unless some special dispensation can be obtained to enable him to annul his application and secure a rehearing.”
A grain dealer is found dead in his office with a bullet in his head and another in his chest, raising questions of how a single gun could be responsible.
“If suicide, how did it happen there were two mortal wounds?”
The International Hotel in Blaine, the first large hotel in the county, was destroyed by fire, killing Ed Jacobson, a head sawyer who went back for his belongings.
“He went to his room in the third story to secure his trunk, which had already been taken out by a friend, and was overcome by the smoke.”
Striking workers at a troubled shingle mill take matters into their own hands after the proprietor fails to pay wages.
“A rope was thrown around his neck, his gold watch was seized, and he was otherwise maltreated.”
A confrontation between Japanese and white residents leaves five injured in the border town.
“A riot occurred on the streets here on Monday between Japanese and white men.”
Former City Treasurer Lester W. David defends his record against accusations of embezzlement, claiming the charges are a malicious political setup by his successors.
“It is wholly a concocted scheme of Mayor Westcott, Councilman Johnston, and other enemies of mine.”
A bored telegraph operator in Blaine sparked a scandal after forging a message from Secretary of State James G. Blaine to a town assembly, causing embarrassment for local officials and leading to an investigation by the Pacific Postal Telegraph Company.
“The dispatch was brought to us at the meeting by the Postal Telegraph messenger and we accepted it in good faith, supposing it to be genuine. Now we find that a trick was played by Pete Harkness.”
A coal-hauling steamer is rendered a floating wreck by a sudden gas explosion, leaving the crew battered but alive.
“The sides of the ship are drawn in fully five inches, and the steel strong-back was thrown so high that when it fell back the flange was cut for six inches.”
With Victoria reporting dozens of cases, Washington border towns put travelers under quarantine and sent six officers to watch the line.
“Six officers patrol the boundary for two miles, night and day, and Point Roberts, twelve miles west, is also quarantined.”
Canadian officials move to counter American trap nets with their own, escalating pressure on the Fraser River's dwindling salmon runs.
“The American canners at Semiahmoo and Point Roberts are not going to have the rich salmon fisheries of Boundary bay all to themselves.”
A Blaine deputy collector of customs is arrested for pocketing government import duties, sparking fears he might have fled across the international line.
“If any of my officers are derelict in their duties or dishonest, it is my aim to punish them to the full extent of the law.”
Following Lynden's lead, the city of Blaine closes its saloons, leaving the border town without a drop of legal spirits.
“Lynden is no longer lonesome in the county. There is Nooksack, which has always been dry, Everson and Blaine keeping her company on the water wagon.”
Defying a government warrant, two newspaper publishers staged a daring cross-border escape into Washington to avoid political prosecution in British Columbia.
“The officers, however, had their pains for nothing, as both the gentlemen were safely out of the city.”
A fugitive, a jilted pursuer, and a steamer route through Puget Sound made for one of the summer’s strangest chases.
“At Seattle he tried to dodge her, but she managed to keep an eye on him, and got aboard the same steamer with him, bound for Whatcom.”
John Cain, a sturdy rail-splitter and pioneer of the Puget Sound, passes away in Blaine at age 86.
“He was a sturdy oak in his day, being co-temporary with Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and Indiana.”
A widower clearing his land near Blaine meets a tragic end while working in isolation.
“He lived alone, and his body was found shortly after the accident by a neighboring logger.”
A steamship crew takes a detour five miles offshore to rescue a exhausted deer lost at sea.
“The mate made a lasso out of a casting line and dropped it neatly over the animal's head.”
Three sailors flee the British warships at Esquimalt, stealing down the east coast of Vancouver Island by night to cross into American soil at Blaine.
“Sunday night was the first decent night's sleep they had enjoyed for a week, which was owing to their safe transit into Uncle Sam's dominion.”
The city council refuses liquor licenses, forcing the town's saloons to shut their doors as the temperance movement gains a local victory.
“The thirsty crossing the line into British Columbia, where a hotel was supplied with a bar.”
A young woman loses her life in a heartbreaking domestic accident during a time of religious devotion.
“This sad affair has cast a gloom over the whole neighborhood, as she was greatly beloved by all.”
A group of burglars target a local drug store owner’s home with a very specific, bumbling objective: stealing the guests' pants.
“The robbers... gathered up all the bifurcated articles of male wearing apparel in sight and decamped.”
Gardeners in Whatcom County find themselves waging a green war against 'volunteer' potato plants that have turned lawns and flowerbeds into unplanned farms.
“the whole lawn is covered thickly with a promising crop of the Peruvian tuber, which, while its foliage is a beautiful green, is rather too rank for good lawn grass.”
When an ill farmer and his preacher could not tend their fields, the community of Semiahmoo mobilized as one to save their livelihood.
“His neighbors, appreciating his unfortunate position, turned out to the number of 28, with their teams and plows about May first.”
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