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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1897 | 62 |
| 1898 | 112 |
| 1899 | 10 |
184 stories
- The Northern Pacific's Plan for the Yakima Valley
A railroad land agent outlines a strategy to monopolize grazing rights, promote 20-acre farm plots, and lure a sugar beet factory to the region.
- The Ghost Town of a Pioneer's Dream
A German immigrant spends decades waiting for his Puget Sound homestead to become a metropolis, only to see the boom vanish as quickly as it arrived.
- The Myth of Civilization
A satirical look at the displacement and forced assimilation of Indigenous people in the Yakima Valley.
- The Great Spokane Butter Heist
Dairy inspectors crack down on a ring of restaurants and hotels serving illegal, colored oleomargarine.
- The Grocery Store Debate on Women's Financial Autonomy
A group of men at a local store argue that women are incapable of managing money, only to be challenged by a young farmer who defends his wife as an equal partner.
- The Checkerboard Conflict
A federal judge rules that sheep ranchers can cross Northern Pacific Railway land to reach public grazing grounds, challenging the railroad's control over the landscape.
- Yakima's Orchards Weren't Dead After All
After a November cold snap that hit 20 below zero, Yakima Valley growers feared their fruit trees were ruined. By spring, the blossoms told a different story.
- The Klondike Gold Rush and the Northwest Farmer
As thousands flock to the Alaskan gold fields, regional agriculturalists anticipate a massive economic windfall from the sudden demand for food.
- The Railroad Barons and the Range Wars
Northern Pacific executives visit Yakima to defend their controversial new land-leasing system against local sheepmen.
- The Mortgage Freeze of 1897
New state legislation intended to protect farmers from foreclosure has inadvertently choked off agricultural lending.
- The Battle for the White River Valley
Farmers rally against a plan to divert the White River, fearing a return to the devastating floods that ruined their land.
- The Great Wheat Bottleneck
Eastern Washington farmers face a crisis as railroads prioritize long-haul freight over local grain shipments, leaving warehouses overflowing.
- The Railroad Men's Retirement Plan
With jobs held at the whim of superiors, railroad employees are buying up farmland as a hedge against being fired or incapacitated.
- The Best and Most Reliable Pickers to Be Obtained
Hop tying and strawberry picking brought cash onto the reservation and goods into Yakima's stores — and the growers knew exactly whose labor they were counting on.
- The Wheat Broker Who Vanished With the Proceeds
A Spokane County farmer shipped wheat to a Seattle commission firm and got nothing back. The office was empty, the operator was in San Francisco, and the paper called it deliberate fraud.
- The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach
A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.
- The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels
Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.
- The Dairy That Started With 20 Rented Cows and Ended Up With 2,560 Acres
Two Spokane entrepreneurs built Hazelwood Dairy on a promise that milk would be exactly as advertised—at a time when watered milk was the norm.
- A 50-Year Teamster Tells the Legislature to Keep Its Hands Off His Wagon Wheels
A Moran Prairie farmer pushes back against a Seattle-backed bill to mandate wide wagon tires, arguing that city men who never drove a loaded team shouldn't legislate for the men who do.
- The Mountains Closed: Stockmen Fight the Cascade Forest Reserve
Eastern Washington's cattle and sheep men warn that locking up the Cascades as a federal forest reserve would beggar every valley town — and train their anger on the Yakama Reservation boundary, which they want opened to their herds.
- The Desert That Could Bloom: Pasco’s Irrigation Revival
Philadelphia capital revives an abandoned Palouse canal project, promising water for 5,000 acres this summer and eventually 15,000 acres near Pasco.
- The Birth of the Washington State Live Stock Breeders' Association
Prominent stockmen gather in North Yakima to form a new professional organization aimed at elevating the state's agricultural standards and boosting the State Fair.
- The Wool Boom in Yakima
New statistics reveal that Yakima County dominates the state's sheep industry, holding nearly half of Washington's total flock.
- The Sugar War: Why Yakima Farmers Wanted Hawaii's Sweet Deal Axed
Northern Pacific distributed beet seed in North Yakima to test sugar production, but farmers argued they couldn't compete with Hawaiian sugar grown with cheap labor.
- When the Brewery Trust Told a State Inspector to Bring It On
A dairy commissioner orders dairymen to stop feeding cows wet brewers' grain. The Seattle Brewing and Malting Co. writes back that the National Brewers' Association will fund the fight — and dares him to take it to court.