Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine2 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 8 |
| 1884 | 5 |
| 1885 | 3 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 39 |
| 1890 | 11 |
| 1891 | 19 |
| 1892 | 44 |
| 1893 | 30 |
| 1894 | 31 |
| 1895 | 11 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 13 |
| 1903 | 7 |
| 1904 | 5 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 5 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 5 |
| 1917 | 6 |
| 1923 | 8 |
| 1924 | 12 |
| 1925 | 3 |
69 stories
- The Great Ellensburg Fire
While Yakima celebrated the Fourth of July, a neighbor city fell to a devastating, likely incendiary blaze.
- The Race War in Roslyn: How Seattle’s Coal Mines Became a Battleground for Labor and Lynching
As strikers hold the line, the company imports Black miners from Illinois to break them. The result is not just a labor dispute, but a violent racial confrontation that exposes the dark underbelly of Washington's industrial boom.
- The Day Ellensburg Burned to the Ground
A devastating blaze in 1889 consumed fourteen blocks of the young city's business district, leaving merchants and residents in ruins.
- The Day Ellensburg Burned
A devastating fire leaves 12 city blocks in ruins, highlighting the catastrophic failure of the local water system.
- The City in Ashes
After a devastating fire leaves Ellensburgh in ruins, North Yakima reflects on the fragile nature of boomtown prosperity.
- Inferno Consumes Roslyn Mining Town
A devastating fire tore through the canyon-bound town of Roslyn, destroying over 100 buildings and leaving the mining community in ruins.
- The Night the Coal Ran: How a Company Outsmarted Strikers with Negro Labor and Winchester Rifles
In a brazen move to break the Koslyn coal strike, company managers smuggled in replacement workers from Illinois under cover of darkness, escorted by armed deputies who fired through the sleeping village of Seattle.
- The Delegate the Party Refused to Seat
When King County Democrats elected a Black delegate to their state convention, Southern-leaning party members staged a revolt to avoid sitting with him.
- The Roslyn Coal Strike and the 'Supplanting' of Labor
As a wave of five hundred Black miners from Illinois arrives by rail to replace striking workers in Roslyn, the Yakima Herald records the cold mechanics of industrial strikebreaking.
- Racial Violence Erupts in Roslyn Mines
Tensions turn deadly in a mining town as white citizens clash with Black laborers.
- The Black Miners Who Came to Save Roslyn
In February 1885, a special train carrying 300 African American laborers from the East Coast arrived in Washington Territory to break a coal strike. Their arrival ended weeks of unrest and restored order to the struggling mining town.
- Rising from the Embers: Ellensburg's Rapid Rebirth
After a devastating fire consumed the heart of the city in July 1889, the community transformed from a charred wasteland into a brick-fronted city in just two months.
- The 'Bullpen' at the Roslyn Mines
When the Northern Pacific Railroad imported scab labor to break a strike in 1888, the local Democratic convention issued a blistering condemnation of the 'armed police' used to coerce workers.
- The Tragedy at Cle Elum
A head-on collision between a work train and a locomotive leaves construction workers dead and local physicians scrambling in the wake of the worst accident on the Northern Pacific line.
- Farmers Organize Against Northern Pacific Monopoly
Producers in Ellensburg hold an indignation meeting to protest freight discrimination and the railroad's broken land grant promises.
- The Battle for Roslyn’s Coal Fields
A legal challenge emerges against the Northern Pacific Coal Company, as locals allege a fraudulent scheme to seize even-numbered sections of the lucrative coal-rich territory.
- The Segregated Mines of Roslyn
Strikes in the coal fields led to a tense, uneasy truce between white and Black miners, who worked the same pits but remained strictly separated.
- Fatal Quarrel in the Coal Mines of Roslyn
A long-standing dispute over a woman ends in a fatal shooting, landing a local miner in jail.
- Vigilante Violence in Roslyn
A saloon keeper is dragged from jail and lynched by a mob after a deadly dispute over a two-dollar debt.
- Vigilante Justice Narrowly Averted in Roslyn
A mob of men attempted to lynch a laborer near Roslyn before word arrived that the alleged crime had not been completed.
- The Battle of the Kittitas Toll-Gate
A road construction project in the mountains has sparked a local rebellion, pitting frustrated residents against the private toll-road operators.
- Ellensburg Convention Pushes Washington Statehood in 1889
Delegates gathered in Ellensburg in 1889 to demand admission into the Union, arguing that the territory had matured into a self-sustaining, prosperous commonwealth.
- The Governor’s Gambit: Why Washington’s Leader Refused to Send Troops to Strike Miners
In the heat of a labor dispute in Roslyn, Gov. Henry M. Temple argues that calling out the military is a last resort, while local officials clash over the legality of using armed citizens as police.
- The Railroad's Greed: How the Northern Pacific Extorted Kittitas County
Newly discovered reports reveal how the Northern Pacific railroad company used its immense corporate power to extort land from settlers and small-town business owners in Kittitas County.
- The Iron Horse Arrives in Ellensburg
A town celebrates the completion of the railroad track as the local mood turns jubilant.