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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 2 |
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 1 |
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| 1884 | 3 |
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| 1908 | 7 |
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217 stories
- 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.
- 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 Breath of Fire-Damp Killed Twenty-Three Blue Canyon Miners
A coal-mine explosion near Lake Whatcom wiped out nearly an entire shift just before it was due to change, leaving only two survivors to tell what happened underground.
- Fire Damp and Twenty-Three Dead at Blue Canyon
A gas explosion in a new coal working near Lake Whatcom kills twenty-three miners and forces a state inspection into what the company knew about the mine’s ventilation.
- Twenty-Three Miners Died in a Nearly Undamaged Mine
Inspector Edmunds told a Seattle paper that the Blue Canyon explosion was one of the strangest disasters he had ever seen: the mine was barely damaged, yet 23 men were dead, most killed by concussion and gas.
- A Town Buries Its Miners
Funeral services for the Blue Canyon mine disaster dead fill Bay View cemetery as a coroner's jury begins asking whether enough air—and enough regulation—reached the men underground.
- The Deadly Spring-Gun Trap of Whatcom
A laborer seeking shelter in a boarded-up cabin is killed instantly by a rigged shotgun, sparking a legal inquiry into property traps.
- The Explosion at Deadman's Point
A colossal blast of two and a half tons of dynamite levels waterfront shanties and shatters windows miles away.
- Twenty-Two Miners Dead at Blue Canyon
A fire-damp explosion at the Blue Canyon coal mines kills twenty-two, and the paper turns to relief for widows and orphans.
- Lummi Fishermen Fight for Their Reefs
Prominent Lummi leaders seek an injunction against salmon canning companies to protect their traditional fishing grounds from industrial traps.
- Lummi Nation Fights Salmon Trap Incursion
The U.S. government intervenes on behalf of the Lummi people to stop commercial fishing interests from blocking their treaty-guaranteed fishing grounds.
- The Trial That Nearly Triggered a Lynching
A Whatcom jury's acquittal of George Bwiloos for a brutal murder left the town in an uproar, sparking a desperate, failed manhunt by local citizens.
- The Trial That Stoked a Mob: The Swiloos Case
After an accused murderer was acquitted, the citizens of Whatcom waged a campaign of social ostracism against the jury, reflecting deep racial tensions and extrajudicial outrage in 1892 Washington.
- The Bogus 'Happy Valley' Real Estate Scam
A swindler in Fairhaven has been selling plots in a 'Happy Valley' addition that exists only on paper and a mountain.
- The Struggle for Industry in Fairhaven
A local Chamber of Commerce defends its record against editorial attacks, citing structural economic barriers and the legacy of broken 'boom' promises.
- Fatal Trap Set for Burglars Results in Arrests
Two men are in custody for murder after their booby-trapped cabin killed an intruder in Whatcom County.
- The Deadly Spring-Gun Trap
A Whatcom man faces a murder conviction for setting a booby-trapped shotgun to defend his vacant cabin.
- The Collapse of a Fairhaven Empire
A prominent banker faces arrest as the Bank of Fairhaven closes its doors, leaving the county's finances in chaos.
- Nineteen Japanese Immigrants Arrested After Trek from Canada
Destitute group walks from Vancouver, B.C., to Whatcom in hopes of finding work in Seattle.
- The Border-Walking Japanese Laborers
An early 1894 legal test of the 'pauper and assisted immigrant law' sees laborers shuttled back and forth across the Washington-Canada border.
- The Sky Turned to Smoke: Forest Fires Choke Puget Sound
Fires across Whatcom, Skagit and the Olympic Mountains destroyed bridges, barns and a shingle mill, derailed a Great Northern train and left Puget Sound under a suffocating haze.
- Vigilante Sentiment Grows After Sunday Violence
A wave of fights and assaults by 'tramps and toughs' on Harris Street leaves the town calling for better policing.
- The Four Cities of the Bay: A Failed Marriage
Delegates from four separate municipalities on Bellingham Bay meet to debate the dream—and the logistical nightmare—of merging into a single metropolis.
- The Great Boundary Brawl of 1890
Fairhaven and Bellingham citizens mobilize to challenge New Whatcom's aggressive land-grab tactics before the county board.
- Twenty-Three Miners Died. An Old Miner Blamed the Air.
After an explosion at Blue Canyon in Whatcom County killed 23 men, a veteran miner wrote to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the mines were not properly ventilated—and that inspectors and bosses ignored miners who knew better.