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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 |
1,115 stories
- A Judge Ate Candy While a Man's Life Hung on the Verdict
The state supreme court overturns a Jefferson County murder conviction after Judge Sachs reads newspapers and passes sweets on the bench — and delivers a rebuke that is the longest opinion of the term.
- A City on the Brink: Olympia’s 1891 Debt Crisis and the Fight Over Jobs
Facing a constitutional debt limit, Olympia’s city council considers firing the deputy clerk, assistant city attorney, and city engineer—while a motion to revoke the street railway franchise fails by a tie.
- Washington Women Send Their Case to the Nation’s Capital
Olympia’s Equal Suffrage Association names delegates to the national convention and seeks Robert Ingersoll for a Supreme Court appeal over women’s voting rights.
- A Civil War Veteran Vanishes Between Saloon and Lodging
Charles Honige, a 71-year-old Olympia character known for selling hot weinerwurst after dark, left Hosneider's saloon at 10 p.m. and was never seen again.
- Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise
As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.
- The Court That Took Away Washington Women's Vote
Holding up Wyoming's eighteen years of women's suffrage as proof of its benefits, the Tribune condemns the territorial supreme court for reversing Washington women's right to vote.
- Where Is D. P. Ballard? The Lawyer Who Vanished With the G.A.R. Fund
A well-known Olympia attorney disappears leaving debts, a destitute family, and a fraternal post asking what happened to its money.
- Four Years, Then a Federal Appeal: Lybarger Ordered to Walla Walla
Convicted in Thurston County of a sexual offense against 13-year-old Elsie Patnude, John G. Lybarger loses his state appeal; his wife and father-in-law had posted $3,500 bail while the case dragged on.
- Two Chinese Men Walk Free After a 'Hot and Bitter' Immigration Trial
Arrested by a federal inspector and tried since Saturday, Ah Get and Lou Kwong were released in Olympia after cross-examination exposed the government's case as legally empty.
- The Governor's $50,000 Bond
A defaulting King County treasurer's case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving Governor Ferry and other bondsmen on the hook for $34,000.
- The Worst Storm on the Sound: A Train Wreck, a Drifting Ship, and Dead Wires
A landslide derails a Northern Pacific freight near Castle Rock, a British ship is blown across Tacoma bay, and the telegraph goes dead from Seattle south.
- The Great Seattle Housing Boom of 1890
A staggering list of hundreds of building permits filed on the final day of 1890 reveals the rapid, frantic expansion of a city rebuilding itself from the ashes of the Great Fire.
- The Sea-Law Rebellion: How Seattle Sailors Won Their Freedom
Ten seamen who fled the ship Alex Gibson were ordered held by a commissioner, but a sharp legal maneuver centered on maritime labor law secured their release.
- The Price of a Midnight Ejection
After refusing to pay a fare, a passenger was cast into the rain at night, leading to a legal showdown over transit rights and railroad corporate power.
- The Sloop Louisa and the Perilous Waters of Elliott Bay
In 1890, federal authorities seized the sloop 'Louisa' for smuggling Chinese laborers into the Puget Sound, a stark example of the era's exclusionary maritime enforcement.
- The Rent Crisis of 1891: Tacoma Merchants at a Breaking Point
As local business owners faced a contracting economy and 'money stringency,' the Chamber of Commerce debated whether high commercial rents and utility costs were driving them toward insolvency.
- The Day Seattle Decided Its Own Future
On a January day in 1891, the city held a massive, complex special election to authorize bonds for massive public infrastructure, paving the way for the city’s rapid growth.
- The State's First Great 'To-Do' List
Acting Governor Charles E. Laughton’s 1891 address to the legislature provides a rare, wide-angle snapshot of a young Washington State struggling to build its infrastructure, protect its forests, and define its civic identity.
- The Governor’s Dilemma: The Hand-Me-Down Prison
When Washington became a state, the federal government tried to offload the McNeil Island Penitentiary and its prisoners to state control—but Governor Elisha Ferry wasn't having it.
- Will the Great Northern Build Through the White River Valley?
Chief engineer E. H. Beckler surveys the route between Seattle and Portland, weighing the high costs of a shore line against an inland rail path.
- The Struggle for the Seattle Extension
While rail workers at the Union Pacific worried over rumors of massive layoffs and the consolidation of agencies, hope remained that the vital Seattle line construction would resume with the spring thaw.
- The Industrial Boom of Van Asselt's Sewer Pipe
A newly discovered deposit of clay near the Green River births a factory, employing eighty men and shaping the city’s infrastructure.
- The Wild Frontier of Washington’s Legal System
Before high-rises and air-conditioned courtrooms, pioneer lawyers traveled by canoe, slept in tents, and sometimes held court with a loaded derringer in their pockets.
- The Kitchen War in Little Rock
A domestic squabble in a Seattle kitchen erupts into a violent, farcical showdown between a scorned husband, a smooth-talking preacher, and a woman who refuses to be anyone's possession.
- The Price of Efficiency: Seattle's First Charter Crisis
In 1891, the city government struggled to adapt its new charter, clashing over the hidden costs of 'efficiency,' the payment of workers in devalued scrip, and the professionalization of city services.