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238 stories
- The Navy Yard That Built a County
Twenty-nine dry-dock workers were laid off, but Port Orchard's naval station was planning barracks, a railroad and a boom for Kitsap County.
- The Dry Dock That Would Make Puget Sound a Naval Power
Senator Watson Squire tells the U.S. Senate that the Port Orchard dry dock is the largest in America and the cheapest in the world—and that the Northwest's future depends on finishing it now.
- Sound Steamer Nearly Cut in Two
A mechanical failure leads to a collision near Point-No-Point, forcing the crew to beach the sinking steamer Colfax.
- The Trial of Severus Ratten
A murder trial proceeds in Kitsap County despite defense arguments that local prejudice makes a fair hearing impossible.
- The Navy's Giant Dry Dock Needed One More Appropriation
A $200,000 federal appropriation rescued the Port Orchard dry dock from a year's delay, a rare bit of good news for Puget Sound's naval future.
- The Price of Fortification: Seattle Landowners Win Big Jury Verdict Against Federal Government
A federal jury in Port Orchard has valued land for a new military fort at $185,000—nearly double the government's appraisal. Officials warn the deal may collapse if the price is too steep.
- The Great Road War: How Kitsap County Bribed Its Way to Steal Seattle’s Trade
While Seattle merchants sneer at their neighbors, a secret fund has been raised in Olympia to build a direct road from Olalla to the Sound, bypassing Tacoma and threatening Seattle's commercial dominance.
- A Tragic Labor Tragedy at the Port Gamble Mill
A young laborer, driven by economic necessity to work beyond his experience, loses his life in a mill accident.
- The Jail That Wasn't: A Tour of Port Madison’s Fortress
While Seattle’s own jails were often little more than wooden rooms with locks, the new facility on Port Madison was built like a fortress—iron spikes, windlass doors, and a view of the sound. But its warden faces a grim reality: no work for his prisoners.
- The Smallpox Panic: A Quarantined Ship and a City on Edge
When the steamer *Dakota* arrived in Port Gamble with an infected crew member, the community locked down in fear. But as the dust settled, a more insidious threat emerged from within Seattle's own political ranks.
- The Great Street Swap: White Labor Replaces Chinese Contractors in Seattle
In a striking display of racial labor politics in 1876, sixty white workers were hired to replace Chinese contractors on Seattle streets, halting progress and inconveniencing residents.
- The Price of a Seaman's Hand
A mariner sues for $3,000 in damages, claiming gross negligence led to a permanent injury aboard a ship docked at Port Blakely.
- The Midnight Elopement on the Sound
When parents blocked a teenage romance in Port Gamble, a sympathetic reverend and a fast steamer turned a family feud into a dramatic escape across the border.
- The Bureaucratic Standoff at Point-No-Point
A federal effort to build a lighthouse on Puget Sound hit a wall in 1878 when landowners demanded 'exorbitant' prices, sparking a debate over the government's power to acquire land.
- The Ludlow Saloon Shield: How a Mill Worker’s Beating Was Ignored by the Law
In Port Gamble, Washington Territory, a brutal assault on an edgerman was dismissed by a local justice of the peace, leaving the victim powerless against his attacker in a display of judicial indifference.
- The Iron Giant of Seattle: How a Local Foundry Fueled the City’s Rapid Rise
In 1876, Seattle’s industrial heart was beating with molten metal. As the Puget Sound Iron Works churned out rails for expanding railroads and coal mines, local leaders predicted a future where Seattle would rival San Francisco as a Pacific coast manufacturing hub.
- A Brutal Mill Accident at Port Blakely
A mill worker loses his foot to the saw, marking another dangerous day in the Puget Sound timber industry.
- The Tragedy of a Midnight Gale
A young sailor's life is cut short in a brutal storm, his small boat found shattered and abandoned near Vashon Island.
- The Navy’s Checklist: Why Seattle Was Betting Its Future on Iron and Timber
In January 1902, the city compiled a massive dossier of industrial advantages—from Denny Mine ore to fresh-water wharves—to convince Washington D.C. that Seattle was the only logical site for a new Pacific naval station.
- The Creosote Fortress: How a New Plant Aimed to Save Seattle’s Piers from the 'Teredo'
A massive industrial complex rises six miles north of downtown, promising to protect the city's wooden infrastructure from the destructive shipworm.
- The Neighborhood Terror of Kitsap County
A man’s year-long campaign of property destruction and violent threats against his own family members lands him in a King County jail cell.
- The Stevedore’s Claim: A Waterfront Legal Battle
After loading a massive cargo of spars, timber, and planks, a Seattle laborer took the ship owners to federal court to recover his unpaid wages.
- The Fiery End of the Bark 'Hark Hope'
After failing to extinguish a mystery fire in the cargo hold, the crew of a Honolulu-bound vessel was forced to sink their own ship to save it from complete destruction.
- The Shipyard Walkout at the Port Blakely Mill
When an employer mandated a ten-hour workday, laborers staged a strike that pitted the mill's authority against the collective will of the workers.
- The Eight-Hour Day Battle at the Port Madison Mill
After the mill workers in Port Madison held a meeting to demand the eight-hour day, they successfully pressured management into alignment with the major mills in Tacoma and Seattle.