Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| 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 Ex-Congressman's Lumber Scam
How a high-stakes lobbyist used a fake canal project to strong-arm mill owners for land titles.
- Grays Harbor Boom Town Stalls as Newspaper Folds
A speculative boom town faces extinction as rail lines bypass its empty streets.
- The Battle for Elma’s Foundations
A massive legal challenge threatens the property titles of hundreds of residents in a Grays Harbor town.
- The Battle for the Iron Horse
Aberdeen’s civic leaders clash over property rights, local industry, and the high-stakes ultimatum from the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- Lost for Days in the Grays Harbor Wilderness
An elderly hunter is rescued in a state of delirium after disappearing in the rain-soaked timberlands north of Riverside.
- Healing the Hardships of the Harbor
Established by the Dominican Sisters, the city's first hospital was a vital, life-saving response to the high frequency of industrial accidents in the local logging camps.
- Tacoma’s Police Chief Under Fire
Accusations of public intoxication and failure to enforce gambling laws turn the city council into a battlefield.
- Fatal Prize Fight Leads to Manslaughter Charges
A prizefighter died after a brutal seventh-round beating, and the theater owners hosting the spectacle were bound over for abetting.
- The Police Sweep Through Whitechapel
A massive police crack-down on the city's red-light district leads to crowded courtrooms and a battle over jury trials.
- The Ghost of Grays Harbor City
Speculators learn the hard way as a subsidized townsite dies on the vine.
- Tragedy off the Coast of Camano Island
A party of loggers discovered the bound body of a Chinese man near the southern end of Camano Island, pointing to a brutal crime.
- Vigilante Justice in Walla Walla
After A. J. Hunt shot a cavalry soldier, a mob of soldiers stormed the Walla Walla county jail and executed the prisoner.
- The Presidential Ambitions of Governor Laughton
Critics allege that a $50,000 geological survey appropriation is being used to fund a political vanity project.
- The Scandal of the Agricultural College Commission
A heated investigation into alleged corruption and secret deals involving former Washington state officials and the site selection for the new state college.
- A Confessed Killer, a Small-Town Jail, and a Mob Talked Down
Robert Day, held for murder near Woodland, is spared a lynching by 'cooler heads' at a Kerns mass meeting — but Cowlitz County's anger is barely contained.
- Olympia’s Fight for a Deep-Water Harbor
Citizens tell the harbor-line commissioners to claim Budd Inlet’s tide flats for public wharves—not a narrow waterway that would hand the waterfront to private owners.
- Six Drowned and the Dead Looted: The Wreck of the Strathblane
Eyewitnesses described a fearful scene off North Beach as the iron ship Strathblane broke apart—farmers rode into the surf to save survivors while others rifled the dead.
- They Robbed the Dead as the Surf Came In
A Pacific County newspaper condemned beach scavengers who stripped bodies and trunks after a shipwreck—and recalled the shame of the Grace Roberts disaster.
- The Death Rate Was Up. The Health Officer Blamed the Syringe.
In 1891 Olympia's health officer reported an unprecedented mortality spike—and pointed to morphine and cocaine injections, with young women said to be using them 'just for fun.'
- Olympia Bought a $1,500 Sewer Map Critics Called Worthless
A letter to the editor accuses the city council of buying a stranger's sewer plan without scrutiny—complete with a harbor reservoir already condemned in San Diego.
- The People’s Ticket: Olympia’s 1891 Caucus Revolt
A printed slate handed out at the door, a mayor booed as 'defeated,' and a second-ward protest meeting: the fight over who would control Olympia's city nominations.
- Two Red Boxes on Wheels: Olympia's Sorry Excuse for a Streetcar Line
The street railway's president has told the council he can keep the city tied up in court for two years. The Tribune suggests the new council simply take his franchise away.
- The Boy Too Tough for the Reform School
A teenage burglar escapes Chehalis, stumps the trustees, and triggers a constitutional standoff over who must deal with an incorrigible child.
- How a Saloonkeeper's Wife Was Used to Strip Washington Women of the Vote
A call for an Equal Suffrage League meeting in Olympia prompts a bitter retelling of how a Spokane election stunt and a pliant territorial supreme court dissolved the woman suffrage Washington women had held since 1883.
- Washington Took Their Votes. These Women Want Them Back.
Meeting at Tacoma Hall, the Equal Suffrage Association thanks the state supreme court, calls the loss of the ballot an 'outrage' that 'became national in character,' and appeals to the manhood of Washington's men.