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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
- The Midnight Pork-Thieves of Belltown
A wave of petty food thefts from residential pantries has Seattle neighbors on edge, prompting warnings about the 'nocturnal nippers' prowling the city's outskirts.
- The Price of Industrial Expansion
A sheriff’s auction reveals the crushing debt behind the rise of Seattle’s coal industry in the 1870s.
- The Price of Frontier Survival: A Seattle Sheriff's Sale
A 1878 legal notice reveals a bleak snapshot of life in early Seattle, where debt-ridden families faced the auction block under the gaze of a booming young city.
- The Jailhouse Drinker of Tenino
A clever prisoner manages to steal a gallon of whiskey while locked in a closet by using a funnel and his own fingers.
- A Steep Price for Three Dollars' Worth of Wood
A father and his fifteen-year-old son were sentenced to pay a staggering fine—$46 total—after being caught pilfering scrap lumber from the city wharf.
- The Great Telegraph Trail Escape
After fleeing the King County jail, two prisoners find that their path to freedom in Mukilteo was blocked by the unforgiving woods and an unexpected encounter with a local resident.
- Instant Housing in the Northwest
When a family arrived in Dayton, Washington, and found no homes available for rent, they didn't wait—they built their own in a single afternoon.
- The Newspaper Feud of 1876
A local editor’s blistering public breakdown of an auditor who dared to write letters to the editor.
- The Disappearing Patient of King County
A small-statured man, well-dressed in slate colors, walks out of the Territorial Insane Asylum and vanishes without a trace.
- The Devil-Fish of Port Orchard
A local fisherman's harrowing encounter with a tentacled beast off the coast of Kitsap County.
- The Desert Town That Finally Found a Well
For years, the residents of Port Townsend relied entirely on collected rain for drinking water, fearing the earth held nothing but salt.
- Seattle’s Desperate Need for Modern Firefighting
As the city rapidly expands, the Common Council scrambles to replace inadequate, antiquated fire gear before a disaster strikes.
- The Price of Sin in Pioneer Seattle
While the city's elite debated municipal elections and infrastructure, a thief made off with a trunk full of coins and jewelry from a house on the margins of society.
- The Hustlers of the Waterfront: Regulating Seattle's Hotel Runners
In 1878, the Seattle City Council cracked down on the aggressive solicitors who haunted the docks, requiring them to wear badges and pay a quarterly tax for the right to hawk boarding houses.
- Seattle’s Early 1878 Council Meetings
Before the skyline, the city was built on ordinances, grain dryers, and the push for a trans-mountain railroad.
- The Pioneer Woman Who Kept the Palouse Dream Alive
A mother who crossed the continent alone with nine children and a wagon team became the unsung hero of a new homestead in the Palouse, proving she could 'make a lazy man succeed in this country.'
- The Day the Talking Machine Arrived in Seattle
In 1878, Seattle citizens gathered at Yesler’s Hall for a demonstration of Thomas Edison's 'wonderful invention' that could capture and replay human speech.
- General Howard’s Seattle Revival
The Civil War general takes the pulpit to debate the 'infidelity' of the American West.
- The Smallpox Panic of 1876
Busy-bodies spread false rumors of a smallpox outbreak in Seattle, prompting a swift rebuttal from the local physician.
- A Close Call at Third and Union
An evening horseback ride ends in a fright for a toddler and a lucky escape from harm.
- The Day the Earth Shook: Seattle Ship Launches Amidst Pacific Tremors
While the bark Forest Queen was battered by an earthquake at sea, local shipwrights celebrated the launch of a new vessel in Port Ludlow, marking a moment of resilience and growth for Washington Territory.
- The Grasshopper Exodus: How a Plague in Nebraska is Filling Seattle's Streets
As locusts devour the Midwest, desperate farmers look to Washington Territory for salvation—and the *Intelligencer* sees an opportunity to boost settlement.
- The Real Estate Pitchman: Seattle’s ‘Healthy’ Boom Before the Railroads Arrived
In September 1876, just two years before the Northern Pacific Railway would transform the town, a local newspaper ran an aggressive Q&A ad promising steady property values and fertile soil to entice settlers from Nebraska.
- The Unending Grading of Front Street
Seattle's downtown thoroughfare is locked in a cycle of costly miscalculations, mud, and construction delays.
- Seattle’s First City Hall: A $500 Bill for Front Street
In September 1876, the fledgling city council authorized a payment to George Edwards for rebuilding the cribbing and earthworks on Front Street, marking one of the earliest municipal infrastructure contracts in Seattle's history.