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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 62 |
| 1858 | 29 |
| 1859 | 52 |
| 1860 | 27 |
| 1861 | 101 |
| 1862 | 87 |
| 1863 | 69 |
| 1864 | 32 |
| 1865 | 11 |
| 1871 | 11 |
| 1872 | 140 |
| 1876 | 812 |
| 1877 | 678 |
| 1878 | 526 |
| 1879 | 64 |
| 1880 | 180 |
| 1882 | 130 |
| 1883 | 911 |
| 1884 | 499 |
| 1885 | 838 |
| 1886 | 492 |
| 1887 | 484 |
| 1888 | 440 |
| 1889 | 1,324 |
| 1890 | 287 |
| 1891 | 1,115 |
| 1892 | 2,855 |
| 1893 | 2,829 |
| 1894 | 2,116 |
| 1895 | 1,830 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 62 |
| 1898 | 196 |
| 1899 | 446 |
| 1900 | 114 |
| 1902 | 34 |
| 1903 | 1,332 |
| 1904 | 1,126 |
| 1905 | 124 |
| 1907 | 53 |
| 1908 | 351 |
| 1909 | 1,545 |
| 1910 | 413 |
| 1911 | 160 |
| 1912 | 73 |
| 1914 | 261 |
| 1915 | 300 |
| 1916 | 545 |
| 1917 | 332 |
| 1918 | 45 |
| 1919 | 5 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 18 |
| 1923 | 185 |
| 1924 | 151 |
| 1925 | 64 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 19 |
2,231 stories
- Seattle’s Tinderbox: A Warning from the Ashes of Reno
As a massive fire ravages Nevada, this Seattle editor sounds the alarm over the city’s wooden buildings and exorbitant insurance costs, urging brick construction before disaster strikes.
- The Taxation Trap: How Seattle’s Liquor Licenses Were Feeding the County, Not the City
In 1876, a territorial newspaper railed against a fiscal injustice: Seattle taxpayers were footing the bill for policing and street maintenance, while the county kept the revenue from liquor licenses sold within city limits.
- The Great One Thing: Seattle’s First Bid to Stop Strangers from Leaving Empty-Handed
In 1876, a group of local citizens proposed an 'Immigration and Labor Bureau' to help newcomers find work and land, recognizing that Seattle was losing potential residents because they didn't know where to start.
- The Day the Pigs Needed Life Jackets: Seattle’s Great Duwamish Flood of 1876
As the Duwamish River swells and farmers flee to their attics, local merchants rally to clear the Skagit River, betting on a waterway that could transform the territory's economy.
- The Dog in the Manger: How Seattle’s Landlords Are Killing Its Future
An editorial in the 1876 Puget Sound Dispatch warns that greedy real estate owners are pricing out workers with usurious rents, comparing their tactics to Shylock and urging them to lower prices before the city stagnates.
- The Wild West of the Seattle Waterfront
A dangerous 1877 standoff between captains reveals a lawless, unregulated harbor where ship lines were a hazard to life and limb.
- The Ship That Tore Its Own Bow Off: A Seattle Coal Vessel Lost to the Gale
In January 1877, the 1,200-ton ship *Commodore* was driven ashore at Cape Flattery in a ferocious storm. The crew survived, but the vessel—owned by local Port Ludlow resident Arthur Phinney and valued at $20,000—was destroyed.
- The Shoe That Could Save Seattle: Why We Must Stop Exporting Our Hides to San Francisco
An editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch argues that Seattle’s economic survival depends on manufacturing its own boots and shoes locally, rather than shipping raw hides south for a 10% premium.
- The Juror Who Ate Himself into Jail
A Seattle juror’s hunger at the Occidental Hotel led to an invalidated trial, a stern rebuke from the bench, and three months in the county jail.
- The Violent Night at Port Blakely
A drunken dispute at a remote saloon leaves a man dead and a community reeling from the sudden eruption of gunfire.
- A Telegraph Prank Turned a Boat Trip into an Armed Standoff
When someone wired Port Ludlow that a steamer carried smallpox, the town's 'commercial travelers' met a wall of shotguns — and a joke got out of hand.
- The Engine House Was Locked—and the Janitor Was at Church
When two fires broke out in Seattle's Chinese quarter, the engine house was locked and the janitor held the key. Bystanders put out the flames—and the paper demanded a fire department overhaul.
- Sheriff Blocks 28 Miners From Landing — a Newspaper Calls Out the 'Chronic Pauper Hunter'
In 1877, a steamboat captain brought 28 out-of-work miners from Victoria to Port Townsend. The sheriff said they were paupers and refused to let them off the boat. This Seattle editor wasn't having it.
- He Tore Up the Railroad Track, Then Flagged Down the Train
In 1877, a King County farmer named John Ross ripped up Seattle Coal & Transportation Co. rails to force a right-of-way dispute into court — then warned the locomotive before it reached the break.
- A Dispute Over Money Ends With a Shot Through the Kidneys Near the White River
John Morse of Seattle shoots a man near Steele's Landing over money matters and escapes; the wounded man is not expected to live.
- The 'Seattle Way' of Building a Railroad
By shunning outside capital and high-salaried officers, local boosters claim they are carving a path through the Cascades using nothing but 'Seattle money and pluck.'
- The Tragedy of a Forgotten Soul
After a man drowned at a Tacoma wharf, his body was left exposed among 'ravenous fishes' for a full day before a private citizen finally intervened to provide a burial.
- A Near-Fatal Trestle Accident Sparks Anti-Chinese Sentiment
A worker fell from the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad trestle into the bay, drawing attention to the precarious labor conditions and rising xenophobia of 1877 Seattle.
- The Skunk of the Press
A bitter 1877 public feud erupts in the Seattle Weekly Dispatch between an editor and a physician accused of editing a scandalous rival paper.
- The Jailhouse Blunder in Seattle
A man was locked away for a week without due process, exposing deep incompetence in the administration of territorial justice.
- The Disgraceful Scrawl of Territorial Law
A scathing editorial from the Weekly Dispatch reveals that the Territorial Legislature's laws were so poorly drafted, blotted, and grammatically mangled that the editor suggests burning them to avoid litigation.
- The Myth of the Lazy Laborer
A Seattle newspaper editorial in 1878 berates unemployed men for refusing to repair flood-damaged dykes, framing poverty as a moral failing despite local economic instability.
- The Hilltop Slip: Seattle’s Shifting Waterfront
Decades before the regrades reshaped the city, residents of the Belltown waterfront watched their homes slide into the bay as the ground beneath them turned to quicksand.
- The Land is Moving Beneath the Mills
As Seattle's waterfront expansion struggles against unstable geology, a sash and door factory is forced to shutter as the hillside slips toward the bay.
- The Trunk in the Belltown Earth
Two prospectors looking for a brickyard site uncovered more than clay when they stumbled upon a hidden trunk containing a man’s remains.