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 |
|---|---|
| 1907 | 31 |
| 1908 | 304 |
| 1909 | 440 |
| 1910 | 223 |
998 stories
- The Fern Hill Streetcar Siege
Residents of a Tacoma suburb blockade streetcar tracks for nearly 24 hours to protest a fare hike.
- Mystery Deepens at Fort Worden
Military officials are searching for missing soldiers after the discovery of a decomposed body, fueling rumors of foul play at the reservation.
- A Millionaire's Son Declares War on Vice — and Kills a Gambler
Wallace Bussell, 23, walked into Seattle's Monte Carlo saloon on a one-man crusade against sin and shot its manager dead. A patrolman's bullet stopped him before he could finish the job.
- Two Caucuses, One Town, and a Fight Over Water
A planned Citizens' Independent caucus split into rival meetings, producing two tickets and a resolution that candidates oppose the town's pending water-rights purchase.
- A Wall of Fire Above Tacoma Creek
A lightning-sparked blaze burns 2,000 acres, jumps a three-mile trench and pulls lumber companies, settlers and the state fire warden into a desperate fight.
- A Dollar for Three Children: Newport Officers Rescue the Zink Children
After their mother’s death, Maggie, Ruth and Clarence Zink were found underfed and living among loggers; a Spokane children’s home and a Christmas box intervened.
- The Lamp That Killed a Nurse
Margaret Humphrey, burned in an alcohol-lamp explosion at Colville's Harvey Hospital, died of her injuries.
- Drugged on the Waterfront, Shipped to Australia—and Back
J. W. Ellsworth vanished from Everett last September. His family gave him up for dead. His explanation: a shanghaied voyage aboard a lumber schooner.
- The Monster Chain: A Mill Worker Pulled Back from the Jaws of a Conveyor
At the Hoquiam Lumber Shingle Company, a conveyor chain seized a worker and began dragging him toward death — until his fellow hands stopped the machinery in time.
- A Fortune Arrives Too Late for Tunnel Foreman
N. Wickstrom, a careful and sober tunnel foreman, was crushed by falling rock at Blueslide — on the same day a letter told him a long-awaited court judgment had come through.
- The Great Pend Oreille Water Grab
A massive water rights filing for the Pend Oreille River has sparked intense debate over the feasibility of diverting water to the Quincy flats.
- Newport Saloon Owners Sue the Railroad That Remade Their Street
John Koch and Max Weinkauff say the Idaho Washington Northern turned Fourth Street from a business center into a smoky, obstructed nuisance—and they want $10,000.
- A Midnight Death at a Disorderly Resort—and a Jury That Cleared Everyone
W. Bien died in a scuffle at Gladys Bien's Ione resort. Nine people were arrested; a coroner's jury released them all.
- Twenty-Two Minutes on the Rope: The Slow Death of Richard Quinn
The Everett wife-murderer was hanged at Walla Walla and strangled for more than twenty minutes before he died, begging to be dropped again. From the scaffold he insisted the shooting was an accident.
- A Flag, a Revolver, and a Red-Headed Man: Newport's Strange Tuesday Manhunt
A woman under morphine delusions armed herself with an American flag and a loaded .38, then walked Washington Avenue looking for a red-headed man she meant to kill.
- The First Train Into Newport Changed Everything
On November 25, 1907, the Idaho Washington Northern inaugurated passenger and daily freight service, bringing railroad executives, Spokane promoters and a promise of growth to Newport.
- The Valley the Kalispel Never Ceded
A federal allotting agent explains how the Kalispel Valley was divided into individual parcels—after much of it had already been treated as public domain and claimed by white homesteaders.
- The First Death Sentence in Stevens County
After a murder conviction for the killing of his housekeeper, William Frederick Jahns faces the gallows in a landmark legal case for the region.
- The Scandal That Shook the Interior
A federal investigation into Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger reveals allegations of land fraud and corruption involving Washington state coal claims.
- A Recluse's Obsession Ended in a Marshal's Death
Martin Kloos, 50, was said to be fixated on 18-year-old Blanche Jellison. He tried to dynamite her father's house, shot Marshal J. G. Detrick dead, and then killed himself.
- "An Act of Providence": State Clears the Great Northern for the Wellington Dead
After a joint inquiry with the coroner's jury into the Wellington disaster, the state railroad commission finds the train crew did everything reasonable and calls the catastrophe an act of God — then quietly asks engineers to study the grade.
- A Pick, a Stick of Dynamite, and a Supper Break That Killed a Man
A landslide buried the Great Northern's Spokane Falls Northern track near Marcus. The crew sent to clear it was never told the dynamite was already loaded — and grief over the dead man turned into gunfire before the sheriff arrived.
- The Councilman Who Lived Across the State Line
A lawyer’s residency challenge nearly voided a railroad franchise—and forced Councilman Eckerson to offer his resignation.
- The Hired Assassin: A Hotelkeeper's Plot Against Mrs. May North
A signed confession in the Spokane county jail reveals that the shooting of a woman at Elk, Washington, was no random attack but a cold-blooded murder plot arranged two months in advance.
- A 13-Year-Old Stole $7. He Got Five Years in Reform School.
A Springdale meat cutter's missing change led to a child's five-year sentence — a window into early-1900s juvenile justice.