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.
Refine2 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 31 |
| 1877 | 10 |
41 stories
- The Sovereign Grand Commander Comes to Port Townsend
General Albert Pike arrives by steamer to inspect the local lodges, lectures to the brethren, and is feted with a banquet and a Scow Bay clambake.
- Before the Next High Tide
An 1878 editorial warns that hauling gravel and pulling drift logs off the Point Hudson spit has already helped flood Port Townsend twice—and calls for an ordinance before the winter storms return.
- Why Is There No Sawmill on Port Townsend Bay?
With foreign lumber ships crowding the harbor and the mills all seventy miles up the Sound, the Argus does the arithmetic on what the town is throwing away.
- A Pioneer Returns to the Old Home to Die
James J. Harned reached the Pacific at seventeen, became one of Port Townsend’s most useful citizens, and came back one last time to say goodbye.
- The Blue Glass Delusion
A local man's obsession with the 'blue glass' health craze leads to a domestic disaster involving laundry bluing and a very angry wife.
- A Body in the Bay: The Cryptic Note Left in a Dead Man's Skiff
An unidentified man is found adrift in Admiralty Bay, and the only clue is a strange note in his pocket about a neighbor, a house, and cloth nailed to the walls.
- A Spark on the Roof: Fire at Rothschild & Co. Spurs a Petition Against Fireworks
Quick action saved a downtown Port Townsend store from burning, and the close call prompted residents to demand a ban on fireworks within town limits.
- A Taxpayer Fights the Assessor for Six Years — and Loses
William Craswell petitions the county board to strike fraudulent assessments from the rolls and demands back the money already taken; the commissioners refuse, then set the rates for everyone else.
- A Captain's Alaska Liquor Case Comes to Port Townsend
A federal warrant for importing liquor into Alaska and selling it to Native people sends Capt. Thomas Butler to Portland to answer the charge.
- A Reader Says Smiles and Bows Won't Save Port Townsend
A letter to the editor takes aim at the sentimental notion that a town prospers on politeness alone, insisting that Port Townsend needs capital, labor and trade — not suave manners and boosterism.
- Man Overboard: A Desperate Rescue Off the Port Townsend Wharf
When a crewman is swept off the steamer North Pacific just after she leaves the dock, two boats race the heavy swell to pull him from the water alive.
- A Seven-Day Ordeal at Sea: The City of Panama Limps into Port Townsend
A midnight collision with a lumber schooner, a hurricane off the Oregon coast, and a pointed comparison to the steamer Pacific — which went down with more than 200 souls aboard.
- The Tumor That Ate Through a Man's Spine
A Port Townsend autopsy found that a long-growing aneurysm had eroded bone and pushed through the skin of the spinal column.
- A Kitchen Fire on the Hill — and a Town Saves the House
Capt. Willoughby's kitchen burned with $800 in utensils and stores, but quick-acting citizens kept the blaze from taking the main building.
- The Judge's Warning: Stop Selling Whiskey to Indians
A Port Townsend grand jury was told that federal law treated every Native person as under an Indian agent's charge—and that local liquor sellers were profiting from open violation.
- A Bottle of Whisky, a Deadly Dose, and a Doctor Called in Time
A ship's steward and his wife nearly die after drinking from a bottle doctored with croton oil — whether by accident or by design no one can say.