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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 |
911 stories
- A Sunday Visit to the Seattle Missions
A traveler reflects on the diverse congregations and the labor of local churches in the growing city of Seattle.
- The Fever for Puget Sound Land
A traveler reports a 'bewildering' rush of immigrants, leaving little land available as settlers quarrel over every acre.
- Seattle vs. Tacoma: The Great Railroad Battle
Boosterism was the lifeblood of 1883 Seattle, as the P-I staked its claim on the city's future as the 'terminal city' of the Northwest, despite President Villard's clear favoritism toward Tacoma.
- The Miracle Springs of the Columbia
Boosterism and health claims surround the discovery of sulfur springs at the Lower Cascades.
- The Promised Rail Line from Seattle to Gray's Harbor
Investors from New York set their sights on a massive rail expansion to connect Puget Sound to the coast.
- The Unlucky Escape of Frank Hogan
After four years on the run, a jailbreaker is recognized and knocked cold by the Chief of Police.
- Salmon Season in Crisis
A collapse in prices and over-capacity lead to tension on the Columbia River.
- Riding the Rails to Newcastle: A Journey Through Seattle's Future
In 1883, a Post-Intelligencer correspondent took the new Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad south from Seattle, dreaming of tide flats turned into wharves and a bustling commercial city.
- Racing Against the Rainy Season
Seattle school directors scramble to clear land and secure bids for a new schoolhouse in North Seattle before the inevitable autumn storms set in.
- A Boston Banker Tells Walla Walla to Hold Its Wheat
A capitalist touring the territory by rail — with $75,000 already sunk in Washington land — predicts high grain prices, a finished Northern Pacific, and scolds the town's 'sleepy' businessmen for taking their money elsewhere.
- Walla Walla Council Defends Debt to Build City Hall
A finance committee report from 1883 reveals the staggering debt and tax burden required to build Walla Walla’s civic infrastructure.
- The $4,800 School Lot in the Wilderness
Seattle taxpayers cry foul as school directors eye block 14, Central Seattle—land with no families within half a mile and a price twice what similar property fetched.
- The Woman Who Chased Her Lover from Seattle to Semiahmoo
A fugitive, a jilted pursuer, and a steamer route through Puget Sound made for one of the summer’s strangest chases.
- Before the Railroads Cut Through Seattle, One Man Proposed a Saner Street Grid
A letter to the editor calls for wider avenues, a logical naming and numbering system, and railroad tracks that follow the platted streets—not slice across them at will.
- Steaming Through the Puget Sound Boom, Town by Town
A Seattle traveler’s 1883 voyage aboard the Idaho finds crowded wharves, railroad dreams, and real-estate prices high enough to check the very boom they fed.
- Seattle Laid Out Its Streets for 7,000 People. It Was Already Too Small.
In 1883, Seattle citizens worried that the young city's twenty-foot business streets could not carry the growth already under way, and a movement began to widen them to eighty feet.
- Seattle’s Post Office Was a Public Nuisance
Letters sat for a day, stamps ran short, and clerks were worked to exhaustion while the postmaster earned about $85 a month. In 1883, Seattle’s mail service was barely functioning.
- Tacoma Blasted Seattle’s Sin—Then Got Its Own Saloons Counted
A letter to the Post-Intelligencer turns a morality fight back on New Tacoma, where the writer counts seven brothels, twenty-eight saloons and ministers barring non-Christians from church.
- The Forgotten Pioneer Missionary
Before Marcus Whitman, there was Samuel Parker, an elderly preacher who braved the frontier to map the way for the mission of 1836.
- The Toll-Gate Runaway
A young woman's flirtation with danger and a reckless dash through a toll-gate causes a family scandal and the loss of a suitor.
- A Heartbreaking Accident on the Back Porch
A three-year-old child drowns in a wash-tub while the mother is momentarily away from the kitchen.
- The Price of Hospitality
Walla Walla's city council debates how much it should pay to entertain railroad tycoon Henry Villard.
- The Auctioneer and the Widow's Heirloom
A desperate widow, a misplaced cedar cabinet, and a piece of paper that held the future of her children.
- The Queen City’s Clean Bill of Health
Dr. L. Smith argues that Seattle’s location is its best sanitary defense, even as the city lacks a formal sewer system.
- The End of an Institution
Seattle's iconic Arcade dry goods store closes its doors, marking the end of a remarkable partnership.