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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 |
2,855 stories
- The Great Escape and Capture of the 'Crazy Desperado' of Mercer Slough
A man escapes from the Steilacoom asylum, survives a seventy-mile trek through the wilderness on a shattered ankle, and is eventually captured in a Bothell cabin.
- Street Improvement Disaster in Tacoma
A routine effort to clear stumps for new streets ends in a 250-pound boulder tearing through a family’s roof.
- The Secret Plot to Block a City Appointment
When labor leaders discovered a politician was angling for a street commissioner post, they held a secret midnight meeting to kill his candidacy—but a reporter was listening through a hole in the roof.
- The Registration Wars of 1892
A political brawl spills into the courts as Tacoma’s city clerk is arrested for refusing to register voters pushed by out-of-town Democratic ward workers.
- The Midnight Raid on Seattle's Gambling Halls
A surprise police sweep through Seattle's gaming dens sends hundreds of players scrambling into the rainy streets, leaving gambling tools and jail cells in their wake.
- The 'Dead Horse' Auction of 1892
Hundreds of curious Seattleites crowded a Commercial Street warehouse to bid on the mysterious, unclaimed cargo of the Northern Pacific Express Company, turning forgotten packages into a city-wide gamble.
- A Desperate Jailbreak in North Yakima
Two prisoners, one feigning insanity, brutally assaulted a Deputy Sheriff with a rock-filled burlap sling in a failed bid for freedom.
- The New Order at City Hall
As a new Democratic administration takes control of Seattle in 1892, Mayor J.T. Ronald pledges to end the 'barbarous spectacle' of chain gangs and clean up the city's corrupt contracting practices.
- The Midnight Purge of the Seattle Police
Mayor J.T. Ronald orchestrates a defiant, late-night suspension of Police Chief Bolton Rogers in a battle for control over the city's executive branch.
- The Frozen Journey: A Woman’s Fight Against the Railway
After contracting pneumonia on an unheated train, a 55-year-old passenger sues the Northern Pacific Railroad for $8,000, bringing a poignant case of corporate negligence to a Seattle federal courtroom.
- The Great Sound Steamboat Race of 1892
When two passenger steamers left Everett in a desperate, high-stakes dash for the Seattle docks, the local passengers witnessed a spectacle of steam and speed.
- The Unbuilt Dream of the Seattle Ship Canal
In 1892, rail giants and civic leaders pressed Congress for a canal to connect Seattle’s lakes to the Sound, arguing that suffocating railroad tracks were strangling local industry.
- The Political Fight Over the Washington Hop Harvest
As local growers mobilized against a proposed federal tariff reduction on hops, an 1892 letter to the editor captures the early struggle between agricultural protectionism and corporate interests in the White River Valley.
- The Judge Who Stood Up to the Police
When an officer attempted to criminalize poverty, a Seattle judge refused to play along.
- The Hundred-Thousand-Dollar Ballard Land Grab
A decades-long legal battle over a prime section of Ballard real estate winds its way toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
- The 'Two Per Cent' Shylock of Tacoma
As Tacoma voters head to the polls, bitter memories of the 1885 anti-Chinese expulsion flare up, branding a mayoral candidate with a nickname that still stings.
- Vigilantes of the Big Bottom: A Land War in Lewis County
When an aggressive claim jumper tried to terrorize a homesteader, twenty-five settlers organized a committee of order to run him out of the woods.
- The Street Parade That Scandalized Victorian Seattle
A boisterous variety theater's promotional procession—featuring 'bold and painted women'—ignited a fierce public outcry in 1892, highlighting the era's clashing views on morality and civic decorum.
- The Shadow of the Mine Wars at Seattle City Hall
A citizen's public protest exposes the appointment of a former strike-breaking enforcer to the Seattle police force, sparking a clash over the legitimacy of law enforcement.
- The Day the Circus Band Wagon Tore Through Downtown Tacoma
A runaway team of horses pulling a promotional circus wagon turned a mundane Monday into a scene of carnage at the corner of Washington and South Second Street.
- The Tragedy of Martin Johnson
A morning in the Tacoma city jail ends in a desperate act of suicide by a man arrested for public intoxication.
- The 'Ring' Was Busted: Inside Tacoma’s Fiercest Municipal Election
In 1892, Tacoma voters flocked to the polls in a high-stakes showdown that saw Republicans sweep the mayoralty, fueled by intense campaign betting and deep suspicion of local political machines.
- The Raid on Whitechapel’s Cribs
Under orders from the police chief, officers descended on a Seattle district known as 'Whitechapel,' arresting twenty-two women for maintaining 'houses of ill fame' in a surprise morning crackdown.
- The Clearing of Whitechapel
In April 1892, Seattle’s police chief launched a moral crusade to shutter the 'cribs' of Whitechapel, forcing residents into the shadows and signaling an early chapter in the city's long history of displacing vulnerable communities.
- The Housekeeper's Revenge
A Seattle gunsmith returns home to find his entire household cleared out by his disgruntled housekeeper, setting off a local legal tug-of-war.