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 | 9 |
| 1858 | 12 |
| 1859 | 18 |
| 1860 | 4 |
| 1861 | 26 |
| 1862 | 11 |
| 1863 | 14 |
| 1864 | 5 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 27 |
| 1876 | 130 |
| 1877 | 80 |
| 1878 | 109 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 29 |
| 1882 | 25 |
| 1883 | 135 |
| 1884 | 76 |
| 1885 | 180 |
| 1886 | 79 |
| 1887 | 80 |
| 1888 | 80 |
| 1889 | 219 |
| 1890 | 33 |
| 1891 | 130 |
| 1892 | 388 |
| 1893 | 320 |
| 1894 | 353 |
| 1895 | 441 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 13 |
| 1898 | 31 |
| 1899 | 100 |
| 1900 | 12 |
| 1902 | 10 |
| 1903 | 151 |
| 1904 | 133 |
| 1905 | 7 |
| 1907 | 8 |
| 1908 | 66 |
| 1909 | 167 |
| 1910 | 57 |
| 1911 | 20 |
| 1912 | 5 |
| 1914 | 38 |
| 1915 | 31 |
| 1916 | 49 |
| 1917 | 33 |
| 1918 | 6 |
| 1922 | 4 |
| 1923 | 16 |
| 1924 | 19 |
| 1925 | 8 |
| 1928 | 5 |
| 1929 | 8 |
18 stories matching follow
- Speculators Send a Surveyor to San Juan, and a Boundary Dispute Turns Hot
Americans from Victoria and Puget Sound move to preempt land on the disputed island, betting that U.S. jurisdiction will follow—and warning that trouble may follow first.
- The Jury's Boozy Banquet
A Pierce County jury demands a lavish spread of food and a gallon of Scotch while deliberating a verdict.
- A Town Organizes a Vigilance Committee to Keep 'Northern Indians' Off Its Shore
Citizens meet at the Court House, resolve that 'no Northern Indians at any time be allowed to land at this place,' and appoint a standing Committee of Vigilance to enforce it.
- A Fatal Mistake in the Nursery
A young child dies after accidentally consuming sulfuric acid left in a tub.
- The Steilacoom Gold Rush Fever
Reports from Colville suggest a new mining boom is drawing men away from the territory's established industries.
- Gold Dust at the Foot of Mount Baker
A steamer passenger's letter reports that Whatcom merchants have bought gold from Indigenous prospectors—and that plenty more may lie near Bellingham Bay.
- Four Canoes, One Lighthouse, and a Midnight Theft on the Strait
The keeper at New Dungeness reported that a party of Northern Indians broke into the lighthouse storehouse and made off with oil; a revenue cutter was dispatched in pursuit.
- A Plan to Move Indigenous People to San Juan Island Stirs a Border Dispute
A Victoria proposal to resettle Native people on disputed San Juan Island draws a sharp warning from Washington Territory.
- A Councillor Settles a Political Argument With Clubs, Then Leaves Town
A quarrel over loyalty to the mayor ends in a back-lot club fight, a wounded stranger, and a town official who vanishes from the city.
- A Territory Mourns: Olympia Buries Charles H. Mason
When Washington Territory's secretary and frequent acting governor died in 1859, Chief Justice McFadden and Olympia's leading men gathered at the capitol to call him a public servant 'of both soul and nerve.'
- Pioneering the Snoqualmie Pass Road
Citizens of King County organize to build a wagon road across the Cascades, raising over a thousand dollars to bridge the wilderness.
- The Steamer That Never Came: Steilacoom's Broken Promise of a Pleasure Trip
A hundred neighbors set aside their work for a promised steamboat excursion to Olympia — but the boat failed to show, the crowd simmered, and the day ended in a dance hall instead of on deck.
- The Wharf, the Steamer, and the Grudge
A Puget Sound steamer damages Steilacoom's private wharf; the repairs are made, but the landings become a running feud between a steamboat captain and the town.
- Opening the Cascade Gateway
A committee of citizens reports on the progress of a new wagon road through Snoqualmie Pass, promising a vital link between the Sound and the interior.
- Steilacoom Empties Its Garrison for a Near-War on San Juan Island
On Aug. 9, 1859, soldiers and two brass cannon left Steilacoom aboard the steamer Julia to reinforce Capt. Pickett’s tiny command, as the U.S. and Britain edged toward war over a boundary and a pig.
- Two Governors, One Island, and a War Called Off by Letter
Gen. W. S. Harney writes to Queen Victoria's man at Victoria to explain why United States infantry are dug in on San Juan; Gov. James Douglas writes back hoping no 'collision' follows. The boundary quarrel that became the Pig War, in the principals' own words.
- San Juan Islanders Draw a Line in the Salish Sea
At a packed meeting in the little town of San Juan, American settlers pass defiant resolutions against the Governor of Vancouver Island and thank the U.S. troops sent to hold the island — an early scene in the boundary standoff remembered as the Pig War.
- The Senate Ratifies the Treaties That Remade the Northwest
Ratified in 1859, the 1855 treaties with tribes across Oregon and Washington promised annuities, schools and mills while ceding millions of acres to settlement.