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34 stories
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A Squall Off Chuckanut: The Mail Steamer Buckeye Goes Down
The steamer Buckeye capsized in Bellingham Bay in 1893, leaving passengers and crew clinging to a lifeboat and raft. All but one survived.
- The Buckeye Went Down in a Gale—and One Passenger Almost Made It
The steamer Buckeye broke up in the Salish Sea; a rescued stockman described how shifting cattle, a swamped lifeboat, and freezing water killed H. Kautzman within sight of help.
- Twenty-Three Dead, and a Jury Clears the Company
An inquest into the explosion that killed twenty-three miners at the Blue Canyon mine blames gas and dust — and flatly exonerates the company of any fault.
- The Cabin Door That Killed: A Man-Trap, a Storm, and a Supreme Court Warning
A Whatcom County man rigged a gun to fire when his cabin door opened. A storm-driven traveler triggered it and died—and Washington's high court upheld the conviction, ruling property rights stop short of deadly traps.
- A Young Mother Died After Being Taken From the People Caring for Her
Caroline Erickson, a Swedish immigrant who had just given birth, was removed to St. Joseph’s hospital against her will and died the next day; the woman who sheltered her blames the charity.
- Silence Was Golden: How Two Japanese Laborers Escaped Deportation
A smuggler's luck and a well-timed memory lapse freed two Japanese laborers held in a Washington county jail—a small episode in the era's fierce battles over immigration.
- Two Years in Limbo: Whatcom's Failed Bank
Depositors in the Columbia National Bank get only a sliver of their money back while the officers scatter — one to Honolulu, one to the shingle business — and the receiver's promises dissolve.
- New Whatcom’s Ledger Had a Credit Side, Too
After a defalcation and the Panic of 1893, New Whatcom’s mayor and a local editor argued over whether the city was broke or merely bruised.
- A Captain's Midnight Wrestle With an Armed Robber
Capt. W.W. Gardner loses a small sum but saves his watch after a holdup at Thirteenth and I streets—part of a burglary wave police cannot seem to stop.
- A Wave, Unbarricaded Doors, and the Wreck of the Buckeye
The wrecked steamer is found near Fairhaven as passengers blame the mate and a drowned Anacortes liquor dealer goes to the grave without an inquest.
- The Cabin Booby-Trap That Cost Newell Barr Ten Years
Sentenced for a gun trap rigged in his Whatcom cabin that killed John Erickson, Barr heads to Walla Walla as hopes for a pardon fade.
- Senator Squire Appeals for Fire Relief
Washington Senator Watson C. Squire petitions the Department of Agriculture to prioritize fire-ravaged Whatcom County for seed distribution.
- A County Treasurer Refuses to Pay a Single Warrant
Whatcom County's Populist commissioners ordered old bills paid out of the new year's taxes. The treasurer said no—and the whole county's finances ground to a halt.
- Fairhaven's Booster Gospel: A Correspondent Says Come With Money, Not Without
A Chicago Record writer tours the Sound and pronounces the coast counties blessed—while conceding the sawmills have gone dark and the camps emptied.
- The County Treasury Lockdown
Whatcom County officials are at an impasse over a resolution to freeze outstanding warrants, sparking a legal and political battle.
- The Bridge That Folded Over the Nooksack
High wind and failing bolts send six workmen into the wreckage of the Welcome bridge; one man is expected to lose a leg.
- When Populists Ran the Courthouse, County Warrants Fell to 74 Cents
A cost-cutting order from Whatcom's Populist commissioners has clerks and deputies refusing to obey, while the county's paper warrants slide toward junk.