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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 3 |
| 1871 | 8 |
| 1872 | 109 |
| 1876 | 535 |
| 1877 | 377 |
| 1878 | 279 |
| 1879 | 15 |
| 1880 | 134 |
| 1882 | 98 |
| 1883 | 508 |
| 1884 | 325 |
| 1885 | 563 |
| 1886 | 359 |
| 1887 | 324 |
| 1888 | 314 |
| 1889 | 800 |
| 1890 | 11 |
| 1891 | 340 |
| 1892 | 1,326 |
| 1893 | 1,600 |
| 1894 | 1,228 |
| 1895 | 1,049 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 8 |
| 1898 | 20 |
| 1899 | 366 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 5 |
| 1903 | 152 |
| 1904 | 69 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 74 |
| 1910 | 25 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 5 |
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 27 |
| 1917 | 10 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 11 |
| 1925 | 3 |
| 1928 | 10 |
| 1929 | 15 |
11,139 stories
- The City That Almost Wasn't: How Seattle Lost Its Railroad Bet
When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed Seattle in favor of Tacoma, local investors faced a choice: watch their city wither or build their own line.
- The City’s Panic Over a Smallpox Outbreak
When an infectious disease arrived on the Seattle waterfront in 1876, the City Council and local editors turned to extreme rhetoric, calling for the forced removal of the city's vulnerable populations.
- The Waterfront Showdown of 1877
A mob attempts to forcibly eject Chinese laborers from a coal ship, but is repelled by a quick-thinking mate and his revolver.
- The Judge Who Scratched Out His Own Eyes
A Seattle judge’s legal flip-flop on municipal taxation sparks a fiery editorial showdown and accusations of corrupt land speculation.
- An Indigenous Woman Left to Die at Seattle’s Mechanic Wharf
When five Indigenous people were rescued from a capsized canoe in Seattle’s harbor, a local resident threw one woman into the mud and left her to die.
- The Land Grab That Built Seattle: How Indian Reserves Held Back the City
In 1877, local editors railed against federal land policies that reserved vast tracts of fertile Washington Territory for Native American use, arguing these 'monopolies' stifled white settlement and speculation.
- The Checkerboard Trap: How the Northern Pacific Railroad Hoarded Washington’s Land
An editorial in The Daily Intelligencer exposes how the railroad company used federal land grants to block settlers from claiming homesteads, leaving thousands of acres in legal limbo and stalling the growth of Seattle and Tacoma.
- The $3 Million Strike: How the Great Northern Railway Bet on Breaking Workers
In the winter of 1893, the railroad’s board calculated that paying workers less was cheaper than losing millions to a strike. They were right—and Seattle paid the price.
- The Ghost of the Gatherer: A Captain’s Suicide Haunted by His Own Cruelty
Decades after a horrific voyage where officers maimed and murdered sailors to escape their 'demoniac' captain, the master of the ship dies by suicide in Puget Sound, fulfilling a prophecy of vengeance.
- The Southern Pacific’s Secret Hand: How a California Giant Bought Seattle’s Future
While Washingtonians celebrate the new Seattle & Southern Railroad as a local triumph, an editorial exposé reveals it is merely a puppet of the Southern Pacific monopoly, raising fears of corporate control over the city's transportation destiny.
- The Man Who Walked With a Bolt Through His Foot
John Moore, Seattle's most noted diver, recounts the harrowing moment he was impaled by a railroad bolt in the Mississippi River—and how his tender saved him.
- The Marshal’s Club: A Vagrant’s Death on the Falmouth Harbor
When a Whatcom city marshal struck a drunk vagrant with his billy club, the man died. Now, a furious letter found under the body demands justice in Seattle.
- The Roslyn Race War: How a Strike Turned Seattle into a Fortress
In February 1903, hundreds of armed Black miners from Montana arrived in Seattle bound for the coal mines of Roslyn. The city braced for violence as white workers threatened to close down the town's economy and seize its property.
- The Terminal War: How the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific Seized Seattle
Wireless reports confirm that two major railroads are conspiring to make Seattle their northern terminus, effectively cutting off Tacoma from transcontinental traffic.
- The $10,000 Gamble: How Seattle Citizens Bought Their Way to the World
In a desperate bid to secure a transcontinental rail link and outmaneuver rival Tacoma, local merchants pooled their own money to subsidize the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway.
- The Quarantine Lie: How Providence Hospital’s Smallpox Cover-Up Sparked a Public Health Crisis
A desperate letter from hospital staff reveals that patients were turned away or allowed to leave while infected with smallpox, leading to a chaotic quarantine and widespread community fear in early 1903 Seattle.
- Seattle Squatters Push Land Fight to District Court
Squatters on the Seattle tidelands win a legal delay in a high-stakes title fight against A.A. Denny, as the city watches a $100,000 property dispute head to district court.
- The Waterfront Tug-of-War: Squatters vs. The Empire of A.A. Denny
As Seattle's waterfront boomed, property titan A.A. Denny moved to clear 'squatters' from valuable harbor land, sparking a public anxiety over property titles that echoes through the city's growth.
- The Great Tide-Land Grab
As Seattle approaches statehood, a newspaper sounds the alarm against land speculators plotting to seize the valuable tide-lands from the public.
- The Tragic End of Seattle’s Second-Born White Son
Austin A. Bell, a wealthy real estate developer and son of one of the city's founders, ends his life in a downtown office, haunted by the specter of his father’s mental decline.
- The Waterfront War of 1889
A bitter corporate grudge between local railroads leads to claims of monopolies, coal famines, and the violent destruction of property on the Seattle shoreline.
- The Battle Over Corporate Power at Washington’s Constitutional Convention
As Washington delegates gathered to draft a new state constitution, a heated clash erupted over whether to explicitly restrain the influence of monopolies and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- The Midnight Carriage in Seattle
A witness recounts a harrowing night ride through Seattle’s alleyways, carrying a trunk that smelled of 'decaying flesh' and the suspected secret of a doctor’s botched surgery.
- The Tragic Cost of Seattle's Early Cable Cars
A mother sacrifices her life to save her children after a runaway cable car loses its grip at Second and Pine, exposing the perils of the city’s rapid, unregulated infrastructure boom.
- The Tragic End of a Great Railroad Visionary
General Adas Anderson, the chief engineer who conquered the Cascades, takes his own life in a Seattle hotel room.