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1. The Jealousy That Shut Down a Shop: A Seattle Woman’s Fight for Livelihood

   In 1888, a Seattle lumber shop owner saw her business destroyed not by market forces, but by the petty sabotage of her customers' wives. Her story reveals the fragile economic existence of women in the frontier city.

   Jun 16, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · Scandal

2. The Right-of-Way Racket: How One Man Tried to Sell Seattle's Waterfront Twice

   A legal battle in King County reveals the chaotic land grabs of early Seattle, where a single deed could claim ownership of deep-water access rights across the entire waterfront.

   Jun 17, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

3. A Deadly Dash Across the Seattle Waterfront

   A local worker survives a terrifying brush with death as a massive pile of lumber shifts while being loaded onto a waiting ship.

   Jun 21, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle waterfront, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

4. The Ill-Fated Divorce of Whatcom County

   A couple of thirty years' standing attempted a DIY divorce through a notary, only to find themselves inadvertently back in the bonds of matrimony when the law intervened.

   Jun 21, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerBellingham, Whatcom CountyScandal

5. The Boom on the Sound

   A look at the rapid industrial and commercial expansion of Port Townsend in 1888.

   Jun 23, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyBoom & Bust

6. Port Townsend Doubled Its Population Without a Boom Campaign

   In 1888, Port Townsend boosters promised their city would become the next San Francisco by monopolizing the region's rail and shipping trade.

   Jun 23, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTaylor Street, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyBoom & Bust

7. The Failed Nitric Acid Mutiny at Walla Walla

   A covert plot by forty convicts to poison their guards with nitric acid and storm the prison gates was thwarted by a lucky discovery in the brickyard.

   Jun 23, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWashington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla, Walla Walla CountyTrue Crime

8. The Great Grain War of the Columbia River

   When the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company tried to undercut Seattle's shipping dominance, the press was quick to call their bluff.

   Jun 24, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

9. The Great Front Street Fraud: City Council Exposes Fake Petition for Cable Car

   In a stunning display of civic integrity, Seattle’s Common Council unmasks a fraudulent petition designed to grant a monopoly cable car franchise, revealing that applicants forged signatures and misrepresented property frontage.

   Jun 30, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall · Scandal

10. The 'Sot Guilty' Scandal: How a Legal Loophole Freed a Murderer in Washington Territory

    A detailed account of the chaotic grand jury proceedings in Port Townsend that resulted in the dismissal of an indictment against a man accused of killing his wife, exposing deep flaws in territorial law.

    Jul 3, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyTrue Crime

11. The Day Seattle Swallowed 10,000 Strangers: The Great Fourth of July Flood

    In 1888, the Territory of Washington threw its biggest-ever Independence Day celebration. Steamers arrived loaded with visitors until the streets were so packed that police could barely move. Here is how Seattle hosted a crowd that nearly burst its seams.

    Jul 4, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerOpera House, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

12. The Last Stand of the David Haley: Wreckers Burn a Tacoma Landmark for Scrap

    Seattle wreckers traveled to Puget Sound to strip the iron and copper from the historic shipwreck of the David Haley, destroying a local landmark in the process.

    Jul 4, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerTacoma, Pierce CountyGone Forever

13. The Mountain That Watched: Fire on Mount Rainier’s Peak

    As Seattle and Portland celebrated the Fourth of July with parades and speeches, a mysterious signal fire blazed atop Mount Rainier, drawing thousands of eyes to the sky.

    Jul 5, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

14. The Day Seattle Stood Still: A Century of Celebration on the Frontier

    On July 4, 1897, Governor John H. Temple welcomed thousands of visitors to a parade so massive it stretched half a mile long, featuring floats from local industries and veterans of the Spanish-American War.

    Jul 5, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

15. The Greasy Pole Gambit: Seattle’s Summer of Slapstick and Sweat

    On a sweltering July evening in 1889, thousands gathered at the foot of Madison Street not for politics or protest, but to watch three men fail spectacularly at climbing an oiled pole—a moment of pure, unadulterated civic joy.

    Jul 5, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMadison Street, Front Street, Yesler Avenue, Seattle, King CountyStrange But True

16. The People's Choice: Robert Miller Named Seattle Mayor in Historic Convention

    In a dramatic display of civic unity, the Republican City Committee bypassed traditional balloting to unanimously nominate Robert Miller for mayor, signaling a new era of reform and efficiency in Seattle's leadership.

    Jul 6, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

17. The Price of Progress on Second and Marion

    A lucrative real estate flip on a prominent corner reveals the rapid transformation of Seattle’s downtown core.

    Jul 11, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Gone Forever

18. The Forgotten Union Labor Platform of 1888

    A century and a half ago, a Seattle candidate for the Union Labor Party laid out a vision for a government that serves the people, not the 'moneyed aristocracy.'

    Jul 15, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

19. The Steamboat That Carried Too Many

    A legal dispute over overcrowding on the Seattle-Tacoma run exposes the strict—and often ignored—limits placed on Puget Sound steam travel in 1888.

    Jul 18, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPuget Sound, Seattle, King County

20. The Salvation Army’s Public Nuisance

    A Seattle man files a lawsuit for damages after a noisy street-corner protest left him terrified, trampled, and bruised.

    Jul 20, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

21. The Economic Anxiety of 1888

    A fiery editorial warns that proposed national tariff reductions threaten to collapse Seattle's burgeoning industries and ruin the working class.

    Jul 21, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

22. The City Council’s Petty Snub of Seattle’s Founder

    A scathing editorial exposes how local politicians, led by a councilman, used a mundane land plat filing to insult A.A. Denny, a pivotal figure in Seattle’s development.

    Jul 22, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

23. A Brutal Encounter at the Waterfront

    A Seattle harbor dispute spirals into a violent assault, leaving a man fighting for his life.

    Jul 25, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

24. A Tragic Labor Tragedy at the Port Gamble Mill

    A young laborer, driven by economic necessity to work beyond his experience, loses his life in a mill accident.

    Aug 2, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Gamble Mill, Port Gamble, Kitsap CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

25. The City-Line Land Grab

    A real estate developer attempts to use municipal law to exclude his own property from city taxes while reaping the benefits of inclusion.

    Aug 2, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPuyallup, Pierce CountyFollow the Money

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