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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 8 |
| 1872 | 110 |
| 1876 | 122 |
| 1877 | 95 |
| 1878 | 216 |
| 1879 | 10 |
| 1880 | 62 |
623 stories
- The Great Seattle Railroad Swindle
How corporate speculators and land rings bypassed honest stockholders and plundered the future of the city's waterfront.
- 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 Great Poker Heist: A Man Steals Glass to Escape His Debts
In a bizarre twist of justice in 1872 Seattle, a gambler fleeing a poker loss was caught stealing window panes from a saloon instead of cash.
- The Editor Who Sold His Paper to a Brothel Keeper
A scathing letter in the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes the corrupt alliance between Seattle’s Republican party and its most notorious vice kingpins, asking: 'What of that newspaper publisher... who for a palm share in the wages of prostitution gives his aid and influence?'
- The Great Terminus Fever of 1871
As rumors swirled about the location of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Pacific Coast terminus, Seattleites were gripped by a volatile, real-estate-driven madness that made men 'demented' and land values skyrocket.
- The Great 'Puget City' Real Estate Scam
Promoters are peddling worthless 'paper towns' to investors by falsely claiming the Northern Pacific Railroad will build its western terminus there.
- The Deadly Prescription of Clifton House
A physician’s sinister plot to poison his young wife for her inheritance ends in a gruesome, ironic justice on the frontier.
- The Shadow of the Gallows in Early Seattle
A crowded courtroom watches as a man is sentenced to hang for a murder on San Juan Island, marking a grim moment in the early administration of justice in Washington Territory.
- The Property Battle for Old Seattle
A lawyer and property claimant fight to secure titles to a sprawling Seattle donation land claim amidst territorial legal confusion.
- The Citizens' Revolt Against the 'Official Ring'
When an informal mass meeting in 1872 Seattle bypassed party conventions to nominate their own candidates, the local press didn't just report it—they waged a war against the city's political machine.
- The Ring of Corruption: How King County’s Auditor Hid the Books
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes Gardner Kellogg for refusing to explain thousands of dollars in missing county funds, accusing him of treating public office as private property.
- The Tax Collector’s Secret: How Seattle Officials Hid Debts to Profit from Advertising
A local newspaper exposes a scheme where the School District collector withheld tax information, forcing taxpayers to pay exorbitant advertising fees to clear liens they didn't know existed.
- The Horse That Stopped a City: How an Epidemic Ground Seattle to a Halt
In October 1872, a mysterious disease swept through the Pacific Northwest, paralyzing streetcars and commerce. As merchants turned to oxen and hand carts, the Territory of Washington faced its first major public health crisis.
- The Great Seattle Homestead Fraud
A whistleblower exposes how workers were swindled out of their hard-earned money by a predatory land development scheme.
- The Paradise of Thieves: Seattle’s 1876 Corruption Crisis
When the Territorial Legislature legalized gambling to fund a mountain road, Seattle residents warned that the city was becoming a lawless playground for criminals.
- The Speculative Bubble: Why Seattle’s Rents Are Unsustainable
An editorial in the *Seattle Daily Intelligencer* warns that rampant real estate speculation is driving up costs for actual producers, urging a return to sensible valuation before the inevitable crash.
- 1877 Editorial Urged Crackdown on Native Dance Houses
An 1877 Weekly Puget Sound Dispatch editorial called for a citizen-led campaign against dance houses it linked to liquor sales and disease in early Seattle.
- The audacious railroad land grab that made Seattle's delegate a target
Facing attacks from the Tacoma Herald, Judge Orange Jacobs is praised for blocking a Northern Pacific claim to 783,600 acres — land the railroad tried to take for building just 31 miles of a 'branch road' to a coal mine.
- The Great Pacific Northwest Timber Heist
A federal investigation reveals that $40 million worth of timber was pilfered from government lands in the Puget Sound region since 1855, fueling a battle over corporate exploitation of public resources.
- The Political Price of a Road
Seattle citizens threaten to trade the state capital to Walla Walla to secure a vital road link, as regional rivalries threaten to derail the city's future.
- The Great Railway Monopoly Struggle of 1877
An editorial from the Seattle Weekly Dispatch reveals the town's early, bitter fight against the Northern Pacific Railroad's land-grabbing tactics.
- The Horror on Fifth Street: A Seattle Tragedy in 1877
A prominent local businessman, once a logger and grocer, descended into a violent, drug-fueled psychotic break that devastated his family and left the community reeling.
- The Failed Poison Dinner of Seattle
A meticulously planned attempt at mass murder by a man named Perry Dunfield was thwarted when his intended victims missed their appointment—but the tragedy still unfolded at home.
- The Stranger at the Oriental Hotel
A local man's keen instincts and a sharp-eyed witness led to the capture of a fugitive murderer hiding in plain sight in a Seattle rooming house.
- The Waterfront Conflict: Escalating Violence on Yesler's Wharf
Tensions boil over as displaced workers and local youth clash in a series of violent altercations on the Seattle waterfront.