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 |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 7 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1895 | 2 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
38 stories
- The Scissors-Duel of La Conner
A Seattle capitalist and a labor agitator clash in a bizarre, violent confrontation that left the local agitator wounded and the city buzzing with gossip.
- Armed Vigilantes Threaten Chinese Residents in La Conner
A group of six masked, armed men confronted the Chinese laundry workers in La Conner, demanding they leave town within ten days.
- Turning Marsh into Gold
Farmers on the Swinomish flats have completed a massive infrastructure project to reclaim thousands of acres of marshland for agriculture.
- Wildfire Threatens Pleasant Ridge Settlement
A brush fire east of La Conner consumes a sheriff's home and endangers local homesteads.
- The Tragic Lynching of 'Big Bob' on the Swinomish Reservation
Four men murdered a tribal healer, driven by the enduring power of traditional superstition against the encroachment of modern colonial law.
- Teenager Charged with Fatal Shooting of Indigenous Man
A tragic confrontation on a La Conner wharf leaves a man dead and the local community in a state of high tension.
- The Raids at La Conner
Federal inspectors and the city marshal target a local washhouse, escalating the regional enforcement of exclusionary laws.
- The Exclusionary Pledge of La Conner
A frontier town in the Swinomish Flats organizes a formal, collective boycott against Chinese residents, highlighting the intense racial tensions of the 1870s Pacific Northwest.
- The Great Diking Effort of Swinomish
Farmers on the Skagit and Swinomish are transforming thousands of acres of marshland into fertile fields through a massive, coordinated engineering effort.
- From Mosquito Swamp to Golden Grain: The Taming of the Swinomish Flats
How a desolate, flood-prone wilderness was transformed by sheer human persistence into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the Washington Territory.
- The Fiery End of the Steamer E. W. Purdy
A freight steamer loading hay near La Conner is reduced to a smoldering wreck by a midnight blaze, leaving its crew destitute and stranded.
- First Election in Skagit County
Voters braved the rain to select the new county’s first officials, with eighteen women casting ballots in Laconner.
- The Safe Crackers of La Conner
In a town unaccustomed to such violence, burglars blast open a general store safe, signaling a new era of criminal sophistication.
- A Logger's Amputated Leg, a $700 Bill, and the Lodge That Wouldn't Pay
Skagit logger Daniel Kehoe lost a leg, and La Conner's United Workmen covered three months of care. His Nevada home lodge had not reimbursed them.
- The Town Where Horses Wore Wooden Shoes
La Conner grew slowly on a rocky knoll in the Skagit delta, diked its tidal flats, and shipped out hay by the ton—while its horses clumped through spring mud in wooden moccasins.
- The Dikes Gave Way: Skagit Farmland Under Water
High winds and tides broke dikes from Samish to Stanwood, covering thousands of acres and setting off a demand for a stronger state dike law.
- Blood on the Waterfront: A Bloody July 4th in LaConner
A quiet holiday celebration in the Skagit County mill town turned violent when a local businessman was stabbed in a saloon dispute.
- The Fanny Lake Burns to the Waterline
A Seattle jobbing steamer meets a mysterious end in Sullivan's Slough, marking the third local boat lost to fire in two months.
- The Dredge That Built a Dyke — and Then Went to Dig Seattle's Ship Canal
At La Conner a 200-horsepower suction dredge finished carving Swinomish Slough, pumping mud a thousand yards to wall off the tide. Next week the Anaconda leaves for Seattle and the south canal.
- The Agricultural Transformation of the Skagit Flats
Decades of diking and draining have turned tide lands into some of the most productive agricultural soil in the world.
- Taming the Skagit Tide Lands
Early farmers in the Skagit Valley share sworn affidavits proving the extreme fertility of reclaimed tide lands, boasting of massive grain harvests.
- The Miracle of the Swinomish Flats
A century and a half ago, the Skagit Valley’s richest farmland was dismissed as worthless marshland. Today, it’s an agricultural powerhouse.
- The Kingdom of Cabbage
How Skagit County became the epicenter of the global cabbage seed industry through a half-century of experimentation.
- The Unluckiest Farmer on the Swinomish Flats
Samuel Calhoun had already lost a fortune in grain. Then the steamer Dispatch capsized with another $1,000 of his crop aboard.
- The Sack Famine Hits the La Conner Flats
Farmers face a crippling shortage of grain sacks, threatening the season's oat harvest as dealers refuse to speculate on the necessary supplies.