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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 |
526 stories
- 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.
- The Great Seattle Jailbreak of 1878
Sheriff Lewis V. Wyckoff offers a reward for the capture of five men who vanished from the King County jail in the dead of night.
- The Bridge Over Broken Trust
In 1878, a sharp dissent by a King County Commissioner reveals the classic political struggle over infrastructure spending and the limits of the public purse.
- The Troubled Piano Man of Seattle
After shooting himself in a drinking saloon, a local piano player insists on his right to die, highlighting the brutal intersections of addiction, mental health, and the public gaze in 1878 Seattle.
- The Confidence Men of the Steamer Route
A trio of swindlers fleeing Seattle justice find their match in a wary traveler on the Puget Sound steamship line.
- The Unfortunate Travels of an 'Imperial' Grifter
A self-proclaimed Russian noble finds that Seattle hospitality—and the local church choir—has its limits when his 'aristocratic' habits turn out to be nothing more than petty fraud.
- The Ghostly Exhumation on the Hill
A grieving widow and a procession of mourners perform a mysterious, haunting ritual to rebury a man murdered in the streets of Seattle.
- The Price of Reputation in Early Seattle
A local editor defends the city's power brokers against 'malicious' newspaper attacks, arguing that persistent personal vituperation drives away the capital needed for infrastructure.
- A Desperate Hour at Front and Main
A young man, weary of the 'burden of life,' is rescued from a suicide attempt in the heart of downtown Seattle.
- The Midnight Escape from the King County Jail
When four inmates mysteriously vanished from their cells, the local authorities were left baffled and scrambling to track them down along the muddy roads of old Seattle.
- The Pen and the Pistol: A Seattle Saloon Brawl
When an editor’s satirical writing sparked a public confrontation on Mill Street, a local developer settled the score with a revolver—until his target managed to disarm him.
- The Great Seattle Printing Conspiracy
When the Dispatch editor exposed a 'plunder' scheme by rival newspapers to inflate public printing costs, he revealed the messy, graft-filled reality of 1878 municipal administration.
- The Hunt for the Runaway Wife
After his wife eloped to Seattle with a family friend, a jilted husband tracked her across the coast to initiate a legal reckoning.
- The Railroad Gamble
In an 1878 editorial, the Seattle Weekly Dispatch argues that the economic survival of the region depends on using Chinese labor to build the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, claiming that white capital refuses to invest unless labor costs are kept low.
- The Day the Locomotives Derailed on the Black River
A morning commute goes wrong just outside Seattle when two coal trains collide head-on, sending steam engines into the mud.
- The Brutal Survey of Cedar River
Engineers and directors trek through 20 miles of 'impenetrable thickets' to survey a potential rail expansion for the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad.
- The Newspaper War of 1878
Before the digital age, Seattle's editors fought their battles in court and print, trading accusations of corruption and forgery.
- The Steam Engine Scandal of 1878
When Seattle’s city government faced accusations of graft over a new fire engine, the paper stepped in to defend the city council against 'personal defamation.'
- When Seattle Made Property Owners Pay for Street Grading
An 1878 ordinance reveals the early mechanics of Seattle’s urban development and the 'special assessment' taxes that forced property owners to pay for city street improvements.
- The Skagit Harvest Strike of 1878
A radical field hand pens an open letter from the Skagit River flats, decrying a race to the bottom in wages and the 'swine-like' conditions imposed on labor.
- The Political Machine Behind the Scenes
An 1873 editorial exposes the 'Tacoma Land Ring' and the manipulation of delegate votes to serve corporate monopoly interests in Washington Territory.
- The Great River Jam of 1877
How three determined settlers cleared a quarter-mile of timber that engineers said would take years to move.
- The Sausage-Maker’s Siege
A local merchant finds his business—and his family—hounded by a neighborhood rumor mill gone wild.
- 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.