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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 421 |
| 1889 | 1,084 |
| 1891 | 492 |
| 1892 | 2,259 |
| 1893 | 2,699 |
| 1894 | 2,015 |
| 1895 | 1,830 |
9,295 stories
- The Town That Was Moved by Rail
When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed established Yakima City in favor of its own private land, it didn't just build a station—it forced an entire town to pack up and move.
- The Fight Over the Puyallup Indian Reservation
Tacoma’s Commercial Club maneuvers to open reservation lands to development, sparking local controversy.
- Firestorms Ravage the Snoqualmie and Skykomish Valleys
A massive wildfire has destroyed timber, bridges, and the entire settlement of Wellington, forcing settlers to flee for their lives.
- The City Treasurer Absconds
Seattle City Treasurer Adolph Krug flees to British Columbia amid reports of a massive $30,000 deficit in the municipal treasury.
- The Widow and the Land Graber
An Indian widow and her children reclaim their land after being defrauded by a prominent guardian.
- The Deadly Spring Gun of Whatcom
A man who set a loaded trap for intruders in his cabin faces a murder conviction, setting a major legal precedent for property defense.
- The Great Northern Rail Strike Paralyzes the Northwest
Workers across the line walk off the job to protest wage cuts and the threat of strikebreakers.
- The Great 'Commonweal' Trek Across the Cascades
Striking workers and the unemployed navigate a treacherous path from Seattle and Tacoma toward Washington D.C., clashing with deputy marshals and local authorities along the Northern Pacific tracks.
- Mob Violence Against Federal Officers on Seattle Streets
A correspondent defends the Seattle police for their inaction while deputy marshals were hunted through the downtown district by angry crowds.
- Vigilante Mob Lynches Two Prisoners at Whitman County Jail
A masked party of fifty men broke into the courthouse to extract and hang a convicted assailant and a murder defendant, while a jury slept just feet away.
- The Pullman Strike Shuts Down Washington's Rails
Federal troops and the U.S. Army move to break the nationwide rail strike, with tensions running high in Seattle, Tacoma, and Snohomish.
- A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.
A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.
- A Mob Hanged Two Men at the Courthouse. Then the State Argued Over the Bill.
After Hill and Parker were lynched in Colfax, Attorney General W. C. Jones ruled that the county need not pay for a coroner's inquest—and said the real hunt for the mob belonged to a grand jury.
- Seattle’s Great Fire: Six Years Later
Reflecting on the 1889 conflagration that leveled the city and the resilience that rebuilt it from the ashes.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- A Bloody Reckoning at the Custom House
A violent confrontation between Chinese immigrants and customs officials over thousands of dollars leaves three people severely wounded and a search for truth.
- A Deadly Prank at the Blue Front
A malicious false alarm of a plague quarantine triggers a fatal panic in a Seattle dance hall.
- The Peavey Gang vs. The US Army
When federal troops tried to stop construction on the Puyallup reservation, Indigenous laborers and their allies literally rolled the government's attempts out of the way.
- The Bold Smuggler of the 'Ina'
A Victoria-based steamer brazenly docks at the city landing in broad daylight to coal up, while its captain blurs his ship's identity to evade detection.
- The Battle of the West Street Crossing
A lone police officer stands his ground against a railroad crew in a decades-long property dispute.
- The Great Storm of 1894
A violent cyclone-like windstorm tears through Western Washington, leveling buildings and trapping citizens in the debris.
- Guns at the Polls: Seattle’s First Ward Primary Erupts in a Street Brawl
Sheriff Woolery and saloon man John Considine tried to seize a Republican primary by arresting the election judges; Chief Rogers and his police fought back with warrants, clubs and drawn revolvers.
- A Case of Reasonable Doubt
Salvador Pecani, once sentenced to hang for a brutal crime, is set free after the Supreme Court rules the evidence against him purely circumstantial.
- The Iron War for Seattle
How the city’s early pioneers fought a cutthroat land-monopoly struggle to ensure Seattle would not be sidelined by the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- When Seattle Won the Transcontinental Sweepstakes
In 1890, the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Union Pacific converged on Seattle, transforming the city from a remote settlement into a global Pacific terminus.