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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 |
180 stories
- The Retired Colonel and the County Treasurer
A judge instructs a Grand Jury on whether a retired U.S. Army officer is legally permitted to hold the civilian office of King County Treasurer.
- The County Treasurer’s Double-Dipping Scandal
A local editor challenges a powerful official for illegally holding two offices, exposing a web of political favoritism in the Grand Jury room.
- A Passenger Revolt Against Seattle’s 'Dirty' Steamers
A visiting general and his party refused to board a local vessel, sparking a public outcry over the state of regional maritime transit.
- The Disastrous Nomination of Thomas H. Brents
Local political observers condemn the Republican Party's renomination of Thomas H. Brents, calling him an embarrassment to the Territory and a 'small specimen of humanity.'
- The Unlikely Tale of the 'Pull-Back' Train Stopper
A small-town mechanic's wild invention—a massive rubber cable designed to hook trains that left without their passengers—actually worked.
- The Dark Side of Seattle’s Growth
As Seattle expanded in 1880, its infrastructure struggled to keep pace with the population boom, leaving residents to navigate rotting sidewalks and unlit streets.
- The Sermon on Seattle’s Future
In 1880, a local minister preached that Seattle’s prosperity depended less on its natural harbor and railroads, and more on the moral integrity of its citizens.
- The Rowdy Election Eve of 1880
Before the ballots were cast in Seattle’s pioneer-era election, Republicans and Democrats clashed with torchlight processions, partisan jeers, and competing rallies that defined the territorial political climate.
- The Ghost of Belltown and the Battle for the Ballot
In 1880, as Seattle’s population swelled, the newspaper sparred with shipping reports over the identity of a neighborhood that 'did not exist' and the urgent need for more polling stations.
- The Wife Who Built a Saloon to Save Her Marriage
When her husband blamed his drinking on a 'dull' home life, a Seattle woman staged a radical intervention that turned their parlor into a cabaret.
- The Skagit Gold Rush Mirage
When the promise of easy riches on the Skagit River sparked a frantic, ill-fated mining boom, Seattle’s local press faced accusations of peddling a dangerous myth.
- The Steilacoom Bubble That Burst
A grand, failed railway scheme proves that even the most ambitious 'railroad kings' can't build an empire without a single cent in the bank.
- The Ghost Towns of the Skagit Gold Rush
A winter trek through the North Cascades reveals a landscape of stunning beauty marred by the desperate, thieving misery of the failing gold camps.
- The City That Wants to Be the Boston of the Pacific
While San Francisco fretfully watches its own supremacy, an 1880 editorial predicts a rising Puget Sound metropolis of millions.
- The $5 Million Railroad Promise That Defined Modern Seattle
In November 1880, local investors secured $5 million to connect Seattle to Walla Walla by rail, sparking an immediate boom and the prediction that the city’s population would hit 30,000 within five years.
- The Price of Progress: Arson in the Shadow of the Opera House
When an old commercial building was moved to make way for Seattle's new Opera House, a firebug turned the vacated structure into a torch.
- The Forgotten Dreams of Steilacoom City
In 1880, a visionary booster pitched a grand transcontinental railroad terminus that he claimed would transform a quiet Puget Sound town into the 'metropolis' of the Pacific.
- The Concordia Beer Hall Heist
A cool-headed band of thieves broke into a Seattle saloon, cracked the safe, and held an impromptu dinner party with stolen beer and cigars before vanishing.
- Seattle Paper Warns Chinese Money Could 'Cede the Pacific Coast to China'
An 1880 editorial attacks Chinese campaign contributions to Garfield, casting the Pacific coast as a racial prize.
- Seattle's Barrel Factory Doubles Its Shifts — 'No Chance for Chinamen There'
The factory near Belltown boosts production to 4,000 barrels a day and hires about a hundred men and boys, all white, in a blunt public statement of racial hiring policy.
- A Tragic Warning in the Slate Creek Woods
A logger is killed by a falling tree, fulfilling a premonition voiced by his son just moments before.
- Tragedy at the Sawmill: A Father’s Grief
A young sawmill worker loses his life in a horrifying industrial accident near Vancouver, Washington.
- The Shipmate’s Miracle: A Story of Grit at Sea
A young sailor survives a hundred-foot fall and a double compound fracture, saved by the improvised surgery and steady care of his shipmates far from any port.
- The Great Thaw: Mountain Snows Turn Every River Into a Rampage
An unusually cool spring held a winter's worth of snow until a few hot days sent it all down at once, flooding the Skagit, Cowlitz and Columbia, drowning farmland and putting Portland under water.
- The Captain Refuses to Stand Down
A political storm erupts as a county official defies a court ruling to vacate his office, claiming his popularity trumps the law.