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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
- The Feather-Pillow Pregnancy That Fooled Centralia
A couple's plea for train fare ends with the town out the money and both travelers gone.
- A Hatchet Charge, a Mayor's Household and a Chinese Worker in Court
In 1891 Olympia, a Chinese man known as Jim was arraigned for an alleged hatchet attack on an Olympia News clerk, with the mayor's wife among the first bondsmen.
- The National Theater Manager Skipped Town With the Glassware
H. H. Kline vanished from Olympia's National Theater, leaving unpaid salaries, a bar tab, and empty beer bottles—while police took charge of the building.
- The sheriff seizes Olympia's streetcars, mid-block, over a bond
A lawyer's objection leaves a Main Street horse car standing stock still at Sixth for hours while the company's backers scramble for a new bond.
- A Family on a Float, a Dead Baby, and a Neighbor's Kindness
When the Gore family was found feverish and destitute aboard a float at the foot of Franklin Street, Olympia's charity could not save their youngest child—but it did not abandon them.
- The Senator, the Booster and the 39 Gambling Halls
A Spokane millionaire refused to clean up a vice-ridden building because, he said, Tacoma would happily take the business.
- The Settler Who Watched Olympia Get Claimed
R. C. Smith, who crossed the plains in 1848, recalls the canoe landing where Edmund Sylvester took the claim that became Olympia.
- A Saw Blade, a Slipped Foot, and a Surgeon's Race to Save a Worker's Arm
A worker's foot slipped against a circular saw, severing the artery and nerve in his right arm; doctors ligated the artery and stitched the nerve.
- Tumwater Gets Electric Lights but Still No Crossings—Two Ladies Stuck in the Mud
New lights on Reserve Street only made the missing crossings more obvious when two women tried to walk from the wagon bridge to the post office and sank to a standstill.
- A Forged Delegate Ticket at the Second Ward Meeting
A letter to the Tribune accuses Boss Sickels and sewer contractor Gillie of slipping a printed delegate ticket into a Second Ward meeting, using names without permission.
- A Newspaper Opens a Fund So Poor Men Can Afford the Keeley Cure
The Tribune sets a contribution box at Main and Fourth for Olympia residents too poor to pay for the Keeley Institute's addiction treatment, seeding the fund with $5 and naming a committee to vet applicants.
- The Water Company Wins the Right to Shut It Off
The state supreme court backs the Olympia Light Power Company's authority to cut off water service when a hotel falls behind on its rent.
- A Match Factory for Aberdeen—at a $10,000 Bonus
The Sun Match Company offers 25 to 100 jobs if the board of trade supplies two acres and cash.
- The Dance-Hall Dandy: A Thief Undone by His Own Vanity
A railroad laborer steals a valise of clothes, then wears his finest stolen outfit to a dance hall—where a sharp-eyed policeman spots him.
- The Women of Olympia Furnish a Home Away from Home for Old Soldiers
The Geo. H. Thomas Woman’s Relief Corps outfits a cozy room at the Soldiers’ Home in Orting, down to a rug made from sixteen raccoon skins.
- A Fortune in Strawberries: The Grower Who Says Thurston County Is Sleeping on Its Own Soil
Olympia closed the fruit season with its biggest shipments yet, but veteran orchardman George B. Hartman says the county's trees are thriving on forty years of neglect — and that proper cultivation could out-earn Oregon and California combined.
- A New Editor Rides Into Friday Harbor, Promising Independence and a Paper Second to None
The Islander introduces itself to San Juan County with a defiant platform: no party dictation, no saloon-baiting, and a pledge to be booted around town if it ever breaks its word.
- A Steamer Cruise Through the San Juan Islands, Past Lime Kilns and Seal Rocks
A correspondent rides the Evangel out of Friday Harbor at sunset, taking in Lopez, Orcas, Mount Baker, Roche Harbor's thirteen kilns, and an island said to grow the finest potatoes in the world.
- The Uncharted Riches of the Deep Sea
In 1891, visionary fisheries expert James G. Swan argued that Washington's future wealth wasn't just in timber, but in the massive, untapped halibut and cod banks off the coast.
- The Sloop Louisa and the Illegal Passage
A federal seizure notice reveals the 1890 crackdown on maritime smuggling of Chinese laborers into the Puget Sound.
- The Cowboy of Elliott Bay
A Spokane journalist turns cowboy on the open water, lassoing a fleeing deer from the deck of a Puget Sound steamer.
- Seattle's Great Annexation Election of 1891
Voters head to the polls to decide the future footprint of a booming frontier city as Seattle proposes to annex neighboring Ballard and outlying precincts.
- The Great Annexation Ballot of 1891
Before the sprawling metropolis of today, Seattle held a massive, city-wide special election to incorporate its growing suburbs—from Ballard to Salmon Bay—into the city limits.
- The High-Stakes Gamble for Fur Seals
As tensions mount in the Bering Sea, a local merchant readies his schooner with experimental steam launches, betting that international diplomacy—or flags of convenience—will secure his haul.
- The Knife in the Overcoat: A Seattle Street Fight
A local businessman outsmarts two footpads on a dark corner of Battery Street.