To our readers

Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.

How to use itThe map, research, and checking a story against its page
About Same StreetsWhat this is, where the stories come from, and who makes it
Take the tourThirty seconds on what's on the map
Read one at randomA different story every time

Stories from Columbia County, on the map

State

Filters

When1860 – 1930

How notableAnything

Exact spotTown only

pins, most notable first — zoom in for more

Surprise me

Map layerModern

USGS topographic sheets

1894Seattle1895Snohomish1897Tacoma1897USGS topo — Cle Elum1899Ellensburg1901Spokane1902USGS topo — Oroville1902USGS topo — Skykomish1903Snoqualmie1905USGS topo — Vancouver1906USGS topo — Bellingham1910Pullman1911Mount Vernon1913Wenatchee1915USGS topo — Prosser1916Chehalis1917Pasco1918USGS topo — Port Angeles1919Walla Walla1921USGS topo — Snoqualmie1924USGS topo — White Bluffs1929USGS topo — Colville1934USGS topo — Metaline1936USGS topo — Newport1937USGS topo — Olympia1937USGS topo — Port Orchard1938USGS topo — Neah Bay1939USGS topo — Shelton1939USGS topo — Port Townsend1940USGS topo — Montesano1940USGS topo — Steilacoom

Opacity70%

Show stories over the map

New here? A 30-second tour of what’s on the map.

Stories from Columbia County

1 story

Sort

Showing Columbia County only. Show the whole archive · browse other towns

JUL 2, 1895Columbia County, WA

The Editor Who Told the Populists to Cancel Their Subscriptions

A small-town Washington editor refuses to let a secret Populist club run the Fourth of July, and invites any reader who disagrees to stop his paper.

“This paper cannot be bought by a few Populist subscribers, and they should by this time tumble to the fact.”

City Hall

Read the story: The Editor Who Told the Populists to Cancel Their Subscriptions →

No stories match these filters.

Try a wider date range, another category, or clear everything and start again.

All 1 story shown

Browse them all as a list →

Where the stories are

Seattle11,240
Tacoma2,771
Olympia1,310
Walla Walla1,003
Kennewick865
Yakima717
Snohomish653
Spokane599
Everett565
Newport502
Aberdeen492
Port Townsend360

All 586 towns · Ghost towns · Browse every story · Events · How this is made

Welcome 1 of 5

Old news, on today’s map

Every story here comes from a real Washington newspaper page, pinned to the place it happened — the streets you can still walk today.

The map 2 of 5

Each circle is a town

Its number is how many stories it has. Tap one to list them; zoom in and a crowded area splits into its towns. A solid dot means the exact spot is known; a dashed ring means only the town.

Every story 3 of 5

Read the original page

Each story links to its scanned newspaper page, where you can zoom right into the paper and check every word for yourself.

Go further 4 of 5

Photos, ghost towns and old maps

Buttons along the top of the map switch to photographs, ghost towns and historic maps. Filters, on the map’s left edge, narrow it by decade. Research, in the menu, searches towns, people and groups.

Join in 5 of 5

Know something about a story?

A free account — no password — lets you add a correction or a family memory, and suggest where a story happened when the map only knows the town.

Create an account