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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 9 |
| 1893 | 13 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
75 stories
- The Whidbey Island Smuggling Chase
Customs officials miss a boatload of undocumented Chinese immigrants by an hour, highlighting the cat-and-mouse game on the Puget Sound.
- A Peoria Syndicate Tried to Turn Whidbey Island Into One Big Orchard
With $100,000 in capital and 10,000 acres, outside investors promised a prune empire, new roads, wharves and Eastern colonies — but insisted they were not selling a townsite.
- The Colony Train Bound for Whidbey Island
Eighteen Michigan farm families arrived in Seattle to take land near Oak Harbor, part of a Dutch-led colonization push promising dairies, fruit farms and a thousand new households on Puget Sound.
- The Day Snohomish Became a Ghost Town: A Fatal Accident and the Paper That Got It Wrong
A logger’s tragic death in Holmes Harbor was so widely reported that it appeared in newspapers across the territory—except for one crucial error: they all got the location wrong.
- The Tragedy at Holmes Harbor: A Log Roller’s Fatal Mistake
In the early days of Snohomish County’s timber boom, a simple error in judgment turned a lunch break into a death sentence for James McLachlan.
- Utsalady Bay's Dream of a Great City
An 1890 advertisement pitches the deep-water harbor of Utsalady as the inevitable next metropolis of the Pacific Northwest.
- An 1891 Investor's Case for Utsalady
In 1891, real estate promoters pitched Utsalady as the inevitable future metropolis of the Puget Sound, promising that its deep-water harbor and timber wealth would eclipse every other city in the region.
- The Boomtown That Never Was: The Dreams of Utsalady
In 1891, real estate speculators pitched the small harbor town of Utsalady as a future metropolis destined to surpass Seattle.
- A Sunday Journey to Whidbey Island in 1885
A traveler describes the primitive, thriving settlement of Coupeville and the muddy, adventurous trek to Oak Harbor via stage and skiff.
- The Logging Camp Fortune at the Bottom of the Bay
A logger's clumsy slip sends a mill company's entire payroll into the deep.
- The Mate Who Died Without a Name
A steamer mate is thrown overboard at Utsalady and lost. When reporters ask around the waterfront, everyone knew him—but no one could recall his name.
- The Last of the Pioneer Mariners
Captain Edward Harrington, a self-made man who helped forge early Puget Sound maritime routes, dies at Oak Harbor.
- A Dutch Colony for Whidbey Island
Farmers from Michigan and South Dakota are heading to the Sound to establish a new agricultural settlement.
- The Whidbey Island Rancher Who Vanished Without a Trace
John G. Phinney has been missing for days from his ranch at Penn Cove. A search party aboard the steamer Idaho has not returned, and neighbors now fear he drowned — or met foul play.
- Tugboat Captains Sue for Massive Salvage Fees
A collision between the Willamette and the Premier led to a $20,000 legal battle over rescue services rendered near Whidby Island.
- Mystery Body on Whidbey Island
An unidentified logger is found decomposed on the beach, sparking a coroner's inquiry.
- Six Hours, Sixteen Thousand Feet: Puget Sound's Lumber Boom
A correspondent touring the Sound in 1860 marvels at new sawmills at Utsalady and Port Gamble, where wild country is being turned into lumber camps and the Territory is already boasting of a manufacturing future to rival the older states.
- The Pioneers of Whidbey Island Orchards
A look at the early fruit industry in Island County and the lessons learned by the region's first orchardists.
- The Wild New Town of Penn’s Cove
Construction is booming at the head of Penn’s Cove as a new town rises, while residents grapple with a local scarlet rash and the arrival of a new real estate office.
- The Transformation of Whidbey’s Bottomlands
A local correspondent dispatches a vivid account of agricultural modernization on Whidbey Island, capturing the shift from back-breaking scythe work to the era of mechanized farming.
- The Girls' Camp at Whidbey Island
A group of twenty young ladies establish a summer encampment in the wilderness of Whidbey Island, embracing the freedom of life away from the city.
- The Bankrupt of Island County
A legal notice from 1876 reveals the swift, unforgiving reach of territorial bankruptcy laws in early Washington.
- The Ghost City of Utsalady
In 1891, a developer touted Utsalady as a burgeoning industrial giant on the Sound, envisioning it as a 'second Seattle' fueled by timber, coal, and mineral wealth. History took a different path.
- The Homestead That Became a Beaver Sanctuary
A mid-19th-century advertisement reveals the transformation of Island County wetlands into an agricultural dream, offering a snapshot of frontier land development.
- Oak Harbor Farm With Orchard and Good Water for Sale
An 1878 classified advertisement offers a 'mostly prairie' farm for sale near Oak Harbor, detailing a self-sufficient life built from the ground up.