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 |
351 stories
- A Town Strikes Oil—or a Prankster Strikes First
A well inside Chewelah's city limits began oozing oil, setting off excitement—though one report blamed practical jokers who may have doped the well overnight.
- The Smelter Fires Up Again, and a Town Exhales
A second furnace roars to life at Northport's smelter on Thanksgiving week, the payroll swells — and a manager's quiet trip to the Orient mines hints that more stacks may follow.
- The Old Folks' Day and the Empty Pew
Newport's Methodist congregation honored its elders with lined-out hymns and a shared meal—then buried an invited guest before the day was over.
- No Telephone, No Alarm: A House Gone Before the Department Knew
Fred Stewart's home south of the Great Northern tracks burned to the ground at noon on a Wednesday. The neighbours could not save a thing, a daughter barely escaped, and $40 in cash went up with the walls.
- The Road Money That Went to Colville
Ten thousand dollars was appropriated for the Newport–Orient state road. Six thousand of it vanished into 'preliminaries,' and the actual construction ended up in the county seat instead of at either end of the road.
- The Kaniksu’s 1908 Fire Season: 40 Blazes, $3,569 Spent, and a Warning in the Young Timber
Federal rangers and local crews kept the Kaniksu National Forest from another Alispel-scale conflagration, but the season still burned 700 acres and cost an estimated $15,000 in damaged reproduction.
- A Freight Train Chases Three Horses Into Newport
One of Ed G. Harris's horses is struck near Hardscrabble, then driven miles into town by an eastbound freight before City Marshal Jenne puts the injured animal down.
- A Steamboat Arrives by Rail: Newport's New River Excursion Queen
A $35,000 steamer, built in Portland and shipped knocked-down by rail, would run daily excursions from Newport to Box Canyon.
- Newport Builds Its Way to the Water — One Petition at a Time
Rail engineers run spur lines to the Pend d'Oreille River Navigation Co. docks while the Commercial Club passes the hat for lumber to extend a sidewalk down Pine Street to the Idaho line.
- A Palace on Rails Arrives in Newport
Idaho Washington Northern's new Pullman coaches—steam-heated, electric-lit and brass-trimmed—began service out of Newport, promising a new through line to Spokane.
- A Stolen Rig, a Suspicious Liveryman, and a One-to-Ten-Year Sentence
James Thompson hired a rig in Colville, drove it to Addy, and tried to sell it—then found himself before two judges in a single day.
- The County Seat Crowd Had Already Picked Its Winners
Colville's paper publishes the Republican slate for 1908, and Newport notices that the west side of Stevens County is once again after everything in sight.
- A Hundred Ranchers Tried to Steer the Railroad Down Their Side of the River
Property owners from the Calispel valley packed a Cusick meeting to lobby the Idaho Washington Northern for a west-side route—offering cheap right-of-way and a pile of guaranteed tonnage.
- The Valley That Wanted the Railroad Bad Enough to Move It
Calispel Valley landowners planned to meet Idaho & Washington Northern officials at Spirit Lake to argue that the new line should run up the west side of the Pend d’Oreille, not the east.
- One Thousand Parcels, One Deadline: the County Races the Clock on Tax-Title Land
A new state law gave landowners exactly one year to challenge old tax foreclosures. On the day it expired, the suits landed in the Stevens County courthouse all at once.
- The Town Hauls the Groom Home on a Baggage Truck
Charles Bell slipped off to Spokane to marry quietly. Two hundred neighbors had other plans — and a mule, cowbells and a slasher saw.
- Five Minutes Through Box Canyon
The launch Nancy sets a river record while the Metaline returns with a new boiler and Newport's waterfront hums with new boats and schedules.
- The Opera House Gets Moved for a Concrete Block
H. M. Lund will replace Newport's Opera House with a two-story reinforced-concrete hardware store, while the old theater is sold and rolled north on Washington Avenue.
- A Stevens County Rancher Gets Word of a $7 Million Transvaal Inheritance
Richard Oehmigen of Hunters learned that relatives in Germany had named him heir to one-fifth of an uncle's distant estate—and took the news with remarkable calm.
- The Ione Is Coming: Newport Builds the River's Largest Excursion Steamer
Material arrives for a 135-foot, 400-passenger steamer as Pend d'Oreille River travel booms and promoters dream of tourists.
- A $50,000 Concentrator Heads Down the Pend d'Oreille
Machinery for a 200-ton ore concentrator is bound for Metaline, shipped through Newport and floated downriver on a homemade lumber raft.
- The Riverfront Gets Rearranged for the Railroad
Houses are moved, cedar poles shifted, and the Idaho & Washington Northern prepares to start its loop through Newport’s old riverfront.
- The County That Wanted to Make Its Own Cement
The man who found immense cement deposits near Cement in 1901 is organizing a local company to build a 300-barrel mill—and promising cheaper cement for Stevens County.
- Newport Residents Band Together to Establish Public Library
A group of civic-minded citizens incorporates a library association, elects trustees, and seeks city hall space for a free public library.
- The Newport Hardware Man Who Went Through Johnstown — and Kept the River Mud to Prove It
In his store window, E. E. Reid displays a gilded St. George torn from a clock and a rocking chair pulled from the 1889 Johnstown flood — silt still hardened in the crevices — and jokes that he is still selling hardware because the flood only went through him, not over him.