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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 2 |
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11 stories matching panic
- The Panic on Stage: How a Shout of 'Fight' Turned a Seattle Theater into a Stampede
In the winter of 1876, a misinterpreted cry during a local play sparked a chaotic rush for exits, injuring several patrons and exposing the fragility of public order in the young city.
- The Northwest's Silver Lining in the California Drought
As farmers in California face a 'famine year' due to extreme dry weather, Puget Sound agriculture stands to gain from a surge in demand and profit.
- The Price of Discontent: A Warning from the 1877 Panic
While Seattle thrives on the steady hum of mills and logging camps, a Seattle editor warns citizens against petty grievances by recounting the harrowing hunger and unemployment plaguing the rest of the country.
- The Great 'Beer Hall' False Alarm
A late-night fire scare in 1877 Seattle sends the city into a panic, only to reveal how quickly a rumor could mobilize a crowd and expose the city's nerves.
- The Newspaper Editor Who 'Drowned' in the Sound
After an editor’s unexpected delay while traveling to report on the regional resources of Washington, his local readers spiraled into a panic—leading to a very awkward, very alive homecoming.
- The Labor Panic of 1877
A Seattle editorial weighs in on the xenophobic rumors of coal mine labor imports, framing the struggle between capital and the working class.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- The Great Grasshopper Panic: Why Washington Farmers Are Bracing for a Locust Apocalypse
Professor Riley predicts an unprecedented crop of grasshoppers across the Northwest and beyond, urging immediate preparation as eggs hatch in offices from Minnesota to Missouri.
- The Idle Crowd: Seattle's 1877 Moral Panic over 'Street Loafers'
A local editor observes the growing ranks of the unemployed and 'non-descript' men gathering on Seattle corners, questioning how they survive in a bustling, labor-dependent territory.
- The Vampire of Hard Times: Why Seattle's Banks Are Starving Its Growth
An editorial in the March 1877 *Seattle Intelligencer* blames the region’s economic stagnation not on a lack of enterprise, but on predatory lending rates that are strangling local industry.
- The Opium Evil: How 48 Cans Slipped Past Seattle's Customs Inspector
In 1877, a Seattle paper raged about opium smuggling, corruption in the revenue service, and a den where 'white men, Chinese and Indians' met—a racist panic that echoes today's drug crises.