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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 |
1,324 stories
- The Unfair Cost of Sidewalks
Local property owners protest an assessment system that penalizes owners on smaller streets with uneven, heavy tax burdens for infrastructure improvements.
- Unsolved Mystery at the Yakima River
A decomposed body found near Selah leads to an inquest and a grim verdict of foul play.
- The Great Jailbreak of 1889
In 1889, fifteen of 31 prisoners escaped a city jail through a sawed hole in the wall; none were recaptured.
- A Logging Camp's Fifteen Minutes of Fame
The local press calls out a national magazine's exaggerated depiction of Shelton's timber industry.
- The Billy and the Mob: A Tacoma Street Arrest
A thousand-strong crowd gathered on Pacific Avenue to witness the chaotic arrest of a man resisting police.
- The Man Who Bought a City for $5 an Acre
A Vermont native traded his old life for 80 acres in Seattle, proving that with one horse and sheer grit, the Pacific Northwest could be tamed.
- The Coney Island of the Northwest: East Seattle’s Forgotten Boom
A late 1880s real estate pitch aimed to transform Mercer Island into a glittering, elite playground for Seattle's elite, promising a future rivaling New York's greatest amusement parks.
- The Great Statehood Gamble: How Washington Territory Bet Its Future on a Coin Flip
In February 1889, Congress passed the 'Omnibus Bill' granting statehood to four territories simultaneously. For Seattle and Tacoma, this wasn't just political news—it was a high-stakes gamble that would determine their city limits, tax structures, and place in history.
- The Brick Revolution: Why Seattle’s Wooden Streets Are a Financial Trap
An editorial in the Seattle Intelligencer argues that the city's reliance on timber construction is holding back its prosperity, urging property owners to invest in fireproof brick buildings to secure higher rents and double their income.
- The Daily Parade of Moral Rottenness
A fed-up Seattle resident petitions City Hall to end the brazen practice of parading sex workers through the city's main streets by carriage and brass band.
- The Great Escape from the Pest House
Afraid of being locked in a 'death pen' for an illness, a Skagit man chose to walk home from Seattle to Mount Vernon over two and a half days.
- An 1889 Patient Testimonial for Dr. J. Eugene Jordan
A nineteenth-century resident of the Seattle area shares a harrowing, vivid account of surviving chronic illness through a controversial 'histogenetic' medical system.
- A Struggling Congregation's Plea for a Permanent Home
In 1889, a small band of Swedish laborers turned to the public to save their Gethsemane church from being sold by its financiers.
- The Pioneer Spirit and the Building of Seattle
A look at the ambitious civic development of Seattle's Front Street and the men behind its early transformation into a modern business hub.
- The Myth of the 'Overcrowded' Frontier
In 1889, local papers pushed back against sensationalist claims that Seattle was a destitute wasteland, framing the 'idle' men on street corners not as victims of an economic crisis, but as voluntary loafers.
- The Wild West of Seattle Land Speculation
A single week in April 1889 shows the frantic, high-velocity churn of property ownership as Seattle’s real estate fever hit a boiling point just months before the Great Fire.
- The Lumber Glut of 1889
A historic surplus of timber in Seattle reveals the rapid expansion of early mill infrastructure and the cooling of the local market.
- The Gentrification of North Seattle: A 1889 Land Grab
Capitalists from Nebraska descend on the growing city, clearing forty acres on the Queen Anne plateau to turn wilderness into a 'fine addition' for profit.
- The Man Who Owned the Earth
A laborer from Redmond is committed to an asylum after a mental break convinces him he holds the deed to the entire planet.
- Fire Sweeps Through Seattle's Second Street Waffle House
A kitchen explosion sends breakfast patrons fleeing as a tent-based eatery is reduced to rubble.
- The Real Estate Frenzy of 1889
A local columnist offers a wry, cynical peek at the movers, shakers, and hustlers reshaping the streetscape of Seattle during the great land boom.
- A Miraculous Survival Amid the Ruins
While clearing debris after the Great Seattle Fire, a worker narrowly avoids being crushed when a wagon overturns on the precarious streets of the charred city.
- Scavenging in the Ashes
While Seattle recovers from the Great Fire of 1889, opportunists sift through the debris of the burned post office in search of mail—and valuables.
- The Bold Counter-Heist
A shopgirl turns the tables on a bandit by outwitting him during a robbery.
- Drunk Disturbs Open-Air Church Service
A man named J. L. Cook was arrested after elbowing his way through a crowd to interrupt a sermon at Front and Cherry Streets.