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 |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 18 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 13 |
| 1879 | 4 |
| 1880 | 10 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 9 |
| 1884 | 8 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 5 |
| 1890 | 5 |
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 35 |
| 1893 | 39 |
| 1894 | 23 |
| 1895 | 24 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1910 | 4 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 2 |
244 stories
- Who Left Four Men Clinging to the Buckeye?
When the steamer Buckeye swamped in Rosario Strait, survivors say Captain Hahn rowed ashore with the crew and never sent help back for the men freezing on the wreck.
- A Fireman Died in a Flood-Swollen Culvert. Now His Widow Wants the Railroad to Pay.
E. G. Cole left a widow and three daughters, including six-month-old twins. His estate is suing the Oregon Improvement Company for $12,480, alleging the company ran a train through a flooded, defective roadbed.
- The Indian Wife, the White Widow, and the Skagit Ranch
A Skagit County probate fight asked whether the children of John Wilbur’s Indigenous wife could inherit his ranch—or whether his later white marriage erased them.
- Land Office Scandal in Woolley
A United States court commissioner stands accused of defrauding settlers by withholding land fees and failing to file legal documents.
- The Conflict at Jarmon Prairie
A violent confrontation between loggers and local Indigenous people in Skagit County ends in bloodshed and conflicting accounts.
- Tragedy at the Blind Culvert
A locomotive fireman dies after a train plunges into a washout during the Great Flood of 1892.
- The Skagit Valley Underwater
Farmers on the Skagit flats face ruin as dikes break and floodwaters wash away years of work.
- The Skagit Harvest Strike of 1878
A radical field hand pens an open letter from the Skagit River flats, decrying a race to the bottom in wages and the 'swine-like' conditions imposed on labor.
- The Farmers’ Fight to Clear the Skagit River
When the government refused to fund the removal of dangerous log jams, local settlers and merchants took the job into their own hands, relying on community donations rather than official aid.
- 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.
- The Skagit's Buried Treasure
A survey of the booming coal prospects near the Skagit River, and the physical toll extracted from the pioneers who first uncovered them.
- Gold Fever and Tribal Tensions: A Dispatch from the Sauk Mines
Returning from the mountains, a prospector describes the arduous reality of mining the Sauk, while reflecting on Chief Moses’s urgent plea to live in peace with settlers outside of the reservation system.
- 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 Midnight Queue for a Piece of Skagit Land
When the government opened new timber claims, hopeful settlers staged a chaotic, near-violent all-night standoff to be the first in line.
- The Ghost Towns of the Skagit Gold Rush
A winter trek through the North Cascades reveals a landscape of stunning beauty marred by the desperate, thieving misery of the failing gold camps.
- Trapped in the Snowy Labyrinth of the North Cascades
A Seattle prospecting party seeking a Skagit River mine nearly perishes in a brutal trek through Whatcom County’s mountain wilderness.
- The Skagit County Seat Heist
A secret 'Business Men’s Association' in Anacortes hatches a high-stakes campaign to pilfer the county seat from Mount Vernon, complete with paid-off laborers and promises of a grand courthouse.
- Anacortes Mayor Quits in Protest Against 'Subsidy Brokers'
A.P. Sharpstein steps down, accusing the city's powerful corporate interests of stifling growth and ignoring the needs of local citizens.
- The Con Man Who Could Never Stay Caught
A prolific swindler known for daring escapes and impersonations finally meets his match, leading to a three-year sentence at the state penitentiary.
- Industrial Terror at the Shingle Mill
A Mount Vernon mill worker is gravely injured after a jointer wheel explodes, sending lethal blades through the building like cannonballs.
- 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.
- The Fiery Wreck of the J. C. Brittain
A freight steamer loaded with lime catches fire after hitting rocks in a thick Rosario Straits fog.
- The Lone Guard of Deception Pass
A maritime guard single-handedly outwits smugglers in a high-stakes standoff on the islands of the Sound.
- A Skagit Valley Farmer’s Ruin
After the dikes failed, a prosperous farm on Skagit Island was reduced to 10 percent of its value, with the farmer pinning the blame on timber booms.
- Steamer Burned to the Waterline on the Skagit
A fire sparked by a boiler quickly consumed the steamer Fanny Lake, leaving passengers and crew with nothing but their lives.