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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 98 |
| 1883 | 511 |
| 1884 | 326 |
| 1885 | 566 |
| 1886 | 361 |
| 1887 | 327 |
2,189 stories
- The Great Seattle Oyster War
When Colonel Jim Steel discovered a legal loophole to seize Seattle’s tide flats for private oyster farming, he triggered a chaotic race against a major land company.
- The Railway King's Monopoly Game
A rare glimpse into the backroom dealings of 1887 Seattle, where coal and rail barons haggled over the city's infrastructure and the 'survival of the fittest'.
- The Pile-Driver Politics of Tacoma’s Waterfront
When the Tacoma Land Company locked the city’s citizens away from the bay, one local activist took a stand with a pile driver, a small cabin, and a vision for an open waterfront.
- The Birth of Woodland Park
How a private visionary’s 'enchanter's wand' turned a rugged, logged-over wilderness into Seattle’s premier public escape.
- The Seattle-Tacoma Rivalry Hits the Rails
An editorial critique of a Northern Pacific Railroad official's visit reveals deep-seated local resentment over the company's blatant favoritism toward Tacoma.
- A Dagger on the Ocean Dock
A man brandishing a knife confronts a sea captain on the Seattle waterfront over an unpaid wage dispute, prompting a dramatic intervention by the Chief of Police.
- The City with Two Police Chiefs
While a legal battle over the city charter rages in court, Seattle finds itself in the absurd position of having two men claiming to lead the police force at once.
- The Boomtown Blueprint: Seattle's 1887 Construction Frenzy
Before the Great Fire, Seattle was a city transformed by a sudden, massive wave of brick, sandstone, and ambition.
- The Day Seattle Marched: Labor, Liberty, and the 1887 Fourth of July
A massive parade of unionized labor, from shipbuilders to coal miners, takes over Seattle’s streets for a patriotic Fourth of July that doubles as a fierce critique of land monopoly.
- The Deadly Accident at the Little Sisters’ Hospital
Two young brothers play near the Seattle hospital, ending in a sudden and heart-breaking tragedy.
- The Senator and the Invisible Mountain
A visiting U.S. Senator’s high-profile welcome to Seattle is punctured by the realization that local landmark Mount Rainier is nowhere to be seen behind the heavy, industrial smog of the 1880s.
- The Tragic Cost of a Railroad Crossing
A young bride’s life is cut short in a harrowing rail accident while rushing to her husband.
- The Tragic Final Wages of John Smith
A deckhand on the steamer 'McNaught' met a mysterious and lonely end on the Seattle waterfront, leaving behind nothing but a tragic search for dignity.
- The Night Seattle Celebrated a Railroad Power Shift
When Henry Villard returned to the Northern Pacific board in 1886, thousands of Seattle citizens flooded the streets, hopeful that a friend of the city would finally ensure fair play for its local economy.
- The Price of Resistance: Seattle Unions Take On 'Dark' Boarding House Practices
While Seattle’s 1887 press was full of land speculation and railroad hype, a quiet labor dispute reveals how maritime workers fought back against predatory rooming house keepers who swindled sailors out of their hard-earned pay.
- The Sting on Washington Street
A bold bribery attempt backfires when a Seattle constable and a city official lure a man into a trap, leading to a dramatic arrest.
- The Violent End of the McDonald Marriage
A domestic dispute over a $100,000 ransom led to a desperate shoot-out at the Arcade Hotel.
- The Wild West of Seattle Grading
In the late 1880s, Seattle’s haphazard street construction and 'dirt-moving' contractors left the city a muddy, confusing, and financially murky landscape for residents and letter carriers alike.
- A Marriage Held at Gunpoint
A Seattle woman files for divorce, revealing a harrowing home life where her husband enforced isolation with a revolver and staged nightly terrors.
- The Tragic Last Notes of L. R. Shaw
A desperate local resident details his financial ruin, drug dependence, and final instructions to his family in a series of haunting letters before taking his own life in Seattle.
- The Political Tightrope of Territorial Seattle
In a 1887 campaign speech, future Seattle Mayor T.J. Humes attempts to balance the demands of laborers, miners, and the controversial issue of women's suffrage.
- The Strange Legal Battle of Two Men Claiming One Wife
A quarrel between two men over a woman leads to a courtroom standoff in Seattle, revealing a messy web of bigamy, divorce, and personal vendettas.
- The Perils of the Seattle Tideflats
A mother survives a terrifying fall through a rotten wooden sidewalk into the mud-filled depths of the Seattle tideflats, exposing the dangerous state of the city's infrastructure.
- The Hidden Anarchist Dens of Old Seattle
A reporter goes undercover into the city's dimly lit saloons to find the radicals, the red-eyed agitators, and the illicit literature that supposedly threatened the order of the growing town.
- The Perilous Trek of Miss O'Leary
A young woman survives a harrowing, lonely walk from Portland to Seattle in the depths of winter.