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• 1870–1879 ×

1. 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.

   Sep 30, 1876The Northern StarLa Conner, La Conner, Skagit CountyFollow the Money

2. The Spectacle of the Potlatch

   An observer documents the elaborate cultural traditions of an Indigenous gathering in the Washington Territory.

   Nov 25, 1876The Northern StarTulalip, Snohomish CountyStrange But True

3. 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.

   Dec 16, 1876The Northern StarSkagit River, Snohomish, Skagit CountyBoom & Bust

4. The Great Quarantine: Port Ludlow’s Armed Stand Against 'Commercial Agents'

   In a rare display of local vigilante health policy, armed residents of Port Ludlow blocked a boat from Victoria, British Columbia, forcing it away after learning the passengers had smallpox.

   Mar 17, 1877The Northern StarPort Ludlow, Jefferson CountyStrange But True

5. The Sheriff’s Hammer: Snohomish’s Last Stand Against the 'Nuisance'

   In March 1877, Judge J.R. Lewis and the local Grand Jury launched a coordinated assault on vice, seizing brothels and fining operators, while simultaneously exposing corruption in county bonds.

   Mar 24, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyCity Hall · Nightlife

6. The Land Grabbers of Snohomish: How Loggers Hoarded Tide Marshes

   A local editorial exposes the speculative tactics of transient loggers who are buying up fertile river bottomlands for quick profit, leaving the valley's agricultural potential in limbo.

   Mar 24, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

7. The Mill Barons Who Took the Wealth and Left the Ruins

   A scathing editorial in the 1877 Snohomish Sun condemns Washington Territory’s timber magnates for draining local resources while contributing nothing to schools, roads, or community development.

   May 5, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

8. The Newspaper Feud of 1877

   A Snohomish editor accuses a local county official of petty corruption and personal vendettas, exposing the raw tensions of early frontier governance.

   Sep 15, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyCity Hall

9. The Forgotten Soldiers: A Post-War Reckoning

   Decades after the Civil War, Snohomish's local paper draws a bitter parallel between the veterans who fought to 'free the negro' and the rising tide of impoverished, displaced laborers struggling for survival in 1877.

   Sep 22, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay

10. The Riverboat Captain Who Was Everyone’s Personal Errands Boy

    Before the age of reliable logistics, the Snohomish riverboat captain was the community’s unofficial delivery service, tasked with everything from baby shoes to engine parts.

    Sep 29, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay · Strange But True

11. The Great River Jam of 1877

    How three determined settlers cleared a quarter-mile of timber that engineers said would take years to move.

    Jan 30, 1878The Northern StarStillaguamish River, Stanwood, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay · Strange But True

12. The Sausage-Maker’s Siege

    A local merchant finds his business—and his family—hounded by a neighborhood rumor mill gone wild.

    Apr 10, 1878The Northern StarMain Street, Snohomish, Snohomish CountyScandal

13. The Logjam at Priest Point

    A long-standing practice of mooring logs in the Snohomish River clashes with federal authority, leaving local loggers caught in a bureaucratic net.

    Apr 17, 1878The Northern StarPriest Point, Snohomish, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

14. The Night of the War Dance: A Frontier Survival Story

    A young fur trader, caught in the crossfire of escalating tensions during the Indian Wars, finds his only salvation in the quick thinking of a woman named E-wan.

    Apr 17, 1878The Northern StarBig Bend, Snohomish CountyExclusion & Resistance · Strange But True

15. The Stranger Who Cheated Fate

    A high-stakes gambling dispute near Cathcart leads to a harrowing encounter with frontier justice.

    May 22, 1878The Northern StarCathcart, Snohomish, Snohomish CountyNightlife

16. 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.

    Aug 17, 1878The Northern StarSauk River, Sauk, Skagit CountyExclusion & Resistance

17. The Contract Prison of the Skookum Chuck

    A look inside the privatized territorial penitentiary of 1879, where convict labor was auctioned off to pay for a sheriff's enterprise.

    Mar 22, 1879The Northern StarBucoda, Thurston CountyWork & Pay · Strange But True

18. A Kingdom Waiting for Rails

    In 1878, Eastern Washington farmers were literally building homes out of willow poles because the cost of shipping lumber across the Cascades was ruinous.

    Aug 3, 1878The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

19. A Frontier Double Standard

    In an 1878 column, Captain John of the Siutes calls out the brutal hypocrisy of territorial justice: while white criminals get a trial, Indigenous people get the army.

    Aug 9, 1878The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

20. A Final Shift at the Foundry

    A Union veteran's tragic death while returning to work reflects the precarious nature of labor and health in 1878 Seattle.

    Aug 17, 1878The Daily IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay

21. The Ferryman of the Dark River

    An encounter on the waterfront reveals the quiet, lingering melancholy of a man reflecting on the 'old timey days' and the hard reality of post-slavery life.

    Aug 21, 1878The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

22. A Daring Rescue at the Waterfront

    A young boy pushed into the water from a wharf is saved by a quick-thinking mate from a nearby steamer.

    Sep 1, 1876The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

23. Smallpox Scare at Port Townsend

    Rumors of a smallpox outbreak on Puget Sound trigger public panic, but health officials scramble to reassure the community.

    Sep 30, 1876The Northern StarPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyStrange But True

24. Three Days Adrift: A Ferryman's Rescue Off Point Wilson

    A German sailor in an open skiff, barely able to speak or move, is pulled from the water by Mr. Benson and brought to Port Townsend.

    Sep 29, 1876Puget Sound Weekly ArgusPoint Wilson, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyStrange But True

25. The Night Port Townsend Refused a Boatload of Strikebreakers

    Twenty-eight destitute men from a Nanaimo miners' strike were shipped to Port Townsend aboard the North Pacific. Sheriff Miller met them at the wharf and said they could not land.

    Mar 23, 1877Puget Sound Weekly ArgusCustom House, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyWork & Pay · City Hall

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