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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 |
11,738 stories
- The Gold Rush That Wasn't: Copper River’s Scurvy Epidemic and the Ghosts of the Valdez Glacier
As Seattleites debated housing and labor, a grim report arrived from the interior: men dying of scurvy in the Copper River country, and the recovered bodies of seven explorers who froze to death on the Valdez glacier.
- The Cedar River Siege: How a Power Mogul Tried to Steal Seattle’s Water
Seattle Star exposes the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company’s dirty game: using fake environmental panic to block municipal water rights and crush competition.
- The Council Strikes Back: Seattle Turns on Its Own Power Company
Mayor Humes vetoes saloon restrictions, but the City Council is far more concerned with a corporate power grab. They launch an investigation into the Snoqualmie Falls Power Co., accusing it of using legal injunctions to block the city’s water supply contracts and protect its private interests.
- The Power Struggle for Seattle’s Future
As the city council investigates the Cedar River water rights dispute, a fierce corporate war erupts between the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company and the Union Electric Company, threatening to monopolize the region's energy supply.
- Seattle’s City Council Rejects Public Power in Favor of Private Monopoly
In a decisive vote that prioritized corporate interests over municipal control, Seattle leaders refused to condemn the city's water supply, effectively handing power to private developers.
- The Tragedy at Yesler Way: A Lawyer’s Death and a Woman’s Despair
In May 1904, prominent Seattle lawyer J. Wile was fatally shot by Miss Burke, who then took her own life in a rooming house near the waterfront.
- The Last Laugh of Charles Nordstrom
As the Seattle Star reports on May 15, 1899, condemned murderer Charles Nordstrom sits in his cell, seemingly indifferent to the death warrant signed that morning. While the legal machinery grinds toward his execution for the murder of a police officer, one man’s sarcastic smile and contemptuous silence speak louder than any final prayer.
- Telescoped at the Crossing: A Grant Street Horror
When a Northern Pacific freight train plowed into an electric streetcar on May 20, 1909, one man died and dozens were mangled in the icy water below. The crash exposed dangerous speeds and negligent watchmen at a city intersection that remains vital today.
- The Branding of a Child in a Seattle Blacksmith Shop
A young boy, terrorized and silent, comes home with a 'fiery red' brand scorched into his body, allegedly by three men at a local forge.
- The First Strike Against the Eight-Hour Day
Contractors are already looking for loopholes in the new Washington state labor law, sparking a legal showdown between building firms and the Western Central Labor Union.
- The Great Timber Truce: Tacoma Mills Shut Down for a Week to Save Prices
In a rare display of unity, Tacoma’s logging camps and sawmills have agreed to a seven-day shutdown. While workers face temporary unemployment, the industry claims this 'paradoxical' move is the only way to prevent lumber prices from collapsing.
- The Heat That Broke the Girls: A Seattle Summer of Hysteria
In June 1902, a sweltering afternoon in downtown Seattle turned a garment factory into a scene of mass panic as workers collapsed from heat prostration.
- The Vanishing of Little Nellie: Seattle’s Gypsy Panic
In June 1903, the disappearance of a toddler in West Seattle sparked a city-wide manhunt and deep-seated prejudice against a traveling circus troupe.
- The Dug-Eaters of the Yukon: A Philadelphia Man’s Starvation Story
H.C. Reifsnyder arrives in Seattle with a harrowing tale of survival on the Edmonton Trail, where his party subsisted on dog meat and dugouts after losing their provisions to the brutal wilderness.
- The Invisible Killer in Your Milk: Seattle’s Health Officer Warns of Tuberculosis Cows
With consumption rates soaring and no dedicated veterinary inspector on staff, local officials admit the city is dangerously unprepared to stop diseased cattle from entering the food supply.
- The Vanishing Mill: How Chicago Capital Was Driven Out of Vancouver by a City’s Defiant Stand
A Chicago millionaire’s plan to build a massive sawmill on an island in Vancouver, B.C., collapsed after local police and citizens physically evicted his workers. The fallout has sent the industrialist packing to Seattle, leaving behind political chaos and a debt of thousands to the Dominion government.
- Brutal Midday Assault on Tacoma Streets
A man is kicked to death in broad daylight by a mob on a city street, leaving authorities with only one suspect in custody.
- Doctor Questions City's Smallpox Quarantine Delay
A health officer faces a public revolt after a suspected smallpox outbreak at a local mission leads to a tense standoff and accusations of official negligence.
- The Million-Dollar Tug-of-War Over Seattle's Waterfront
When two railway titans clashed over the location of a union depot, Seattle's newspapers turned the city's future into a public spectacle of corporate ego and investigative scoops.
- The Open Secret: Seattle's Booming Gambling District
While city authorities collected monthly fines, three major gambling houses operated in plain sight on the Seattle waterfront, catering to thousands of working men and sailors.
- The Phoenix City: Seattle's Rapid Rebirth After the Great Fire
Just 18 months after the 1889 fire leveled the downtown, Seattle transformed from charred ruins into a modern metropolis of stone, steel, and electric streetcars.
- The Great Land Grab of 1890
Official records from the Seattle land office reveal a massive migration of settlers moving into Washington’s 'virgin soil,' fueling a population boom and shifting the region's economy toward private ownership.
- The King of the Hop Fields
In 1891, Washington's hop industry was a global juggernaut, fueling a million-dollar boom and transforming the Puget Sound landscape—until the lice arrived.
- The Miracle of Anacortes: A City Built in a Year
How a dense forest on Fidalgo Island transformed into a booming railway terminus and industrial hub in less than twelve months.
- The Political Smoke of 1891: Backroom Deals and Populist Uprisings
While Washington’s early legislature debated the direct election of senators and railroad regulation, backroom meetings at the Olympia Hotel signaled the enduring influence of corporate power.