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.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1858 | 13 |
| 1859 | 27 |
| 1860 | 6 |
| 1861 | 6 |
| 1863 | 5 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 11 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1879 | 5 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 56 |
| 1884 | 25 |
| 1885 | 43 |
| 1886 | 26 |
| 1887 | 70 |
| 1888 | 34 |
| 1889 | 76 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 48 |
| 1892 | 267 |
| 1893 | 263 |
| 1894 | 243 |
| 1895 | 182 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 7 |
| 1899 | 30 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 64 |
| 1904 | 848 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 758 |
| 1910 | 5 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1916 | 9 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 4 |
| 1925 | 1 |
3,195 stories
- Blood on the Hop Fields
A long-standing property dispute over a county road and hop land turns lethal near Lake Tapps.
- Coxey’s Army of the Unemployed Rolls Through the West
Across the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies, an army of unemployed men seize trains and lobby local mayors for bread as they march toward the nation's capital.
- The March of the Unemployed on Washington
Across the nation, the Industrial Army—a protest of the jobless—clashes with railroad companies and authorities as they move toward the capital to demand work.
- Puyallup Tribe Begins Commercial Hop Farming
In a historic shift, local indigenous farmers take the first step toward independent hop production.
- The Political Brawl for Tacoma’s Soul
After 214 ballots, a fractured city council finally elects a president, exposing a bitter web of accusations, bribery allegations, and 'anti-boodler' fervor.
- Tacoma’s Million-Dollar Water Scandal
Citizens are fighting to repudiate a massive bond issue for a municipal water plant they claim is worth only a fraction of the cost.
- Tacoma's $1.75 Million Water Deal Went Bad—and Taxpayers Were Just Catching On
A special dispatch from Tacoma reports that the city's purchase of the old water plant was sold on a false promise of mountain water, while a new bidder offers a cheaper gravity system.
- The Asylum Poisoning Scandal
A state mental hospital is rocked by accusations that a patient was murdered, triggering a battle between local officials and an Eastern chemist.
- The Soldiers Who Refused to Ride With Scabs
During the Pullman strike, a Washington National Guard company mutinied rather than travel on a train crewed by non-union men—and the colonel who disarmed them said the whole unit should be disbanded.
- The National Guard Hunts Its Own After the Railroad Strike
Washington's adjutant general orders investigations into guardsmen accused of union sympathies, disobedience, and damage to railroad property during the 1894 strike.
- The General, the Strikers, and the Company That Wouldn't Ride With a Scab Crew
Brig. Gen. A. V. Curry explains why he handed the rifles back to Spokane's Company G after its men refused to travel with a substitute crew — and why he thought the colonel who disarmed them had acted too hastily.
- Tacoma Sues Water Company for $1 Million Over a Dry Promise
City officials say Patterson Springs delivered a fraction of the promised flow, making the costly gravity system practically worthless.
- The Miracle of the Giant Powder Blast
A laborer describes his harrowing journey through the air after a catastrophic industrial explosion near Puyallup.
- Tacoma’s Open Letter to the Railroad Monopoly
A scathing council memorial accuses the Northern Pacific Railroad of breaking its promises, stalling city growth, and holding the harbor hostage.
- The Sham Inspection of the Northern Pacific
A whistleblower account of how railroad executives entertained government officials with champagne to secure unearned land grants.
- The Senator vs. The Railroad Barons
A fierce Senate debate erupts over the Northern Pacific’s attempt to claim land through a 'coal branch' built years earlier.
- They Climbed Rainier First—and Slept in a Sulphur-Scented Ice Cave
In 1870, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached Mount Rainier's summit after a brutal 10½-hour climb, then spent a freezing night beside volcanic steam vents.
- The Tide Lands Plat: A Waterfront Laid Out for Sale
State appraisers file the plat for the Tacoma tide lands, opening 600 acres of shore and mud flats to sale—unless upland owners claim them first.
- Gunfire Before Midnight: The Bratton Tragedy in Tacoma
Isaac Henry Bratton, 41, shot his wife and then himself at their Tacoma home. The couple had come from Missouri two years earlier and left three children.
- Railroad Men Pack a Tacoma Hall to Kill the Grain-Rate Bill
Seventy railroad employees — or, the P-I suspects, the roads themselves wearing workingmen's clothes — ask the Legislature to reject a bill cutting wheat freight rates. Their argument: lower rates mean lost jobs.
- The Perilous Life at the Soldiers' Home
A legislative report reveals that veterans at the Orting home are forced to carry oil lamps through the halls, risking catastrophic fire.
- The Mysterious Death of Abe Gross
A 28-year-old Tacoma dry-goods partner was found shot through the mouth in his bed. His brother's grief, a coroner's open verdict, and a city's disbelief turned a private tragedy into a public mystery.
- A Magnate's Despair: The Suicide of Paul Schulze
A Tacoma streetcar president and irrigation promoter, ruined by debt and the loss of Northern Pacific confidence, takes his own life with a chilling note about ambition.
- The Puyallup Lands Went on Sale and Almost Nobody Bid
A congressional commission put 1,100 acres of Puyallup reservation land on the block outside Tacoma, appraised at $30,000. Two days in, roughly $3,000 had been taken — and the Indians on the land were already organising their own counter-sale.
- The Treasurer's Bond and the Asylum Signature
A Tacoma bondsman says her name was forged on ex-City Treasurer George W. Boggs's bond while she was confined at Steilacoom—and that she never authorized the defense filed in her name.