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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 |
5,298 stories
- The Ashes of Affluence: How Seattle’s Burnt District Became a Goldmine
While the city mourns the destruction of its commercial heart, savvy investors are turning charred lots into fortunes, with property values tripling in just years.
- The Orphan’s Plea: A Poem That Moved Seattle to Tears on Decoration Day
As the city honored Civil War dead with solemn processions and speeches, a young girl’s grief over her father’s unmarked grave brought the Grand Marshal to tears.
- A Night in the Ideal Saloon
When a woman in a Washington Street brothel suffered an overdose of morphine, the man who brought it to her fled in panic to the courts—only to be arrested himself.
- The Boarding House Brawl
A Seattle assault case takes a surreal turn when a local judge publicly accuses a witness of perjury but refuses to punish her because he has become 'accustomed' to it.
- The Mother Who Walked into the County Jail
A young mother arriving in Seattle from San Francisco faced with a stark ultimatum from the county commission: give up her child or face the poorhouse.
- The Seattle Longshoreman’s Strike of 1888
When the steamship Alki arrived in Seattle, a confrontation between non-union workers and the Longshoremen's Union highlighted the volatile labor climate on the Puget Sound docks.
- The Strange Odyssey of the Boy and the Stolen Buggy
When a 17-year-old was caught stealing a horse and buggy, his strange behavior revealed not a criminal mind, but a tragic descent into mental illness.
- The Salvage Diver Threatens Dynamite in Seattle Harbor
A wreckage contractor, locked in a legal battle over a sunken steamer, vows to use explosives to clear the waterway despite an injunction.
- The Teredo Worm’s Silent Siege
A massive wheat warehouse on the Tacoma waterfront collapses after wood-boring pests hollowed out the foundation, echoing the vulnerability of the region's rapidly expanding infrastructure.
- The Tragedy at Hootman Creek
A double suicide involving railroad workers reveals a grim financial pact and the harsh reality of life on the Cascade division.
- The Sausage Maker’s Long Walk for Justice
After his Skagit County homestead was ransacked, a local sausage vendor spent two weeks trudging through mud to find an officer who would actually serve a warrant, only to be met with a revolver in the woods.
- The Ghosting of J.C. Icebrook
A persistent suitor looking for a 'traveling companion' finds himself ensnared in a web of elaborate decoys set by a local woman and her clever brother.
- The Electric Quack of the Arlington Hotel
An elderly traveler narrowly escapes a predatory ‘doctor’ who attempted to encase her in ‘electric’ metal shields under the guise of a miracle cure.
- The Mud of the Tideflats
An impoverished aristocrat, clinging to the fading pride of her family name, is saved from a lonely death in Seattle's treacherous marshlands by a man she once scorned.
- The Forgotten Bid for a Puget Sound Navy Yard
Decades before the bustling military presence on the Sound, visionaries argued that a ship canal connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington would provide the most natural navy yard in the world.
- The Bold Dream to Remake Seattle's Waterways
In 1880, a group of prominent citizens proposed a canal between Lake Union and Puget Sound to drain Lake Washington, reclaim farmland, and create an industrial powerhouse.
- The Judge's Cruel Calculus
A Seattle widow’s quest for justice in court meets a cold, misogynistic dismissal from the bench.
- 7,000 Miners Head for the Skagit, But High Water Halts the Diggings
Spring freshets wash out the wingdams on Ruby Creek while hundreds of men wait at the Portage for a trail and pack animals — and California newspapers predict a stampede of thousands.
- A Frontier Vendetta Spills onto the Beach
An Indigenous man is shot in a dispute over a death attributed to 'bad Tamanas' or spiritual curses.
- The Captain in the Counting House
A legal firestorm over whether a retired U.S. Army officer can serve as King County Treasurer.
- The Sudden Rise of West Seattle
How a group of San Francisco capitalists transformed a dense forest into a speculative boomtown overnight.
- The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888
When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.
- The Daredevil of Seattle: A Near-Fatal Balloon Plunge
Thousands watched from the waterfront as Professor Van Tassell's aerial exhibition went awry, nearly ending in disaster over the harbor.
- The Scholar Who Lost His Mind to Whisky
In a Tacoma courtroom, a judge delivers a scathing eulogy for the dignity of a man who was once 'a brother of General Manager Muir,' now reduced to disorderly conduct by alcohol.
- The Captain Who Caught a Monster: Seattle’s Own Sea Serpent Hoax
Captain Pat J. Boyton of Seattle claims to have captured a 63-foot sea serpent in the Pacific, sending a letter from his ship that has locals buzzing with wonder and skepticism.