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113 stories matching clay
- The Ex-Governor and the Courtroom Grudge
A former Washington territorial governor is found in contempt of court over a tangled dispute regarding a fire clay mining company's records.
- Sixteen Paupers, a Clay-Bed Well, and a Farm Not Fit to Live On
County commissioners tour the county poor farm and find cracked fences, filthy bedding, horses bleeding on barbed wire and water unfit to drink. The old place will be sold, they say — but only if a poor farm is worth having at all.
- The Sewers Were Cracking — And Seattle Wanted to Know Why
City engineers trace a rash of shattered pipes to Ballard and Olympia, and to the manufacturers who made them.
- Boodle Charges and a Vendetta at the University of Washington
A disgruntled former foreman accuses contractors and regents of corruption in the new state university building, but his allegations are picked apart by those involved.
- The Chute That Killed Black Diamond's Mine Superintendent
John Pritchard Sr., superintendent of the Denny Clay Company mine, died instantly when he was caught between a car and a chute underground.
- A Fence Dispute Turns Violent in Douglas County
A saloon-keeper from Spragua flees the law after shooting a neighbor over a boundary argument.
- Seattle's Broken Sewers Were Shoveled to Pieces, Engineer Says
City Engineer Thomson rejects the explosion theory and blames wet clay clods and soft-burned pipe for fractures under Kenny Street.
- A Landslide Buries the Great Northern’s Steam Shovel at the Falls
A sudden slide knocks the big iron machine out of commission; a wrecker from Hillyard hauls it free for repairs.
- The Hill Is Sliding Into the Sea: Seattle’s First Landslide Crisis
In November 1876, a slow-motion disaster threatened to bury a jeweler’s home and block Mill Street as nature reclaimed the southern slopes of Pioneer Square.
- The Miner Who Hung by His Teeth
A coal miner's miraculous survival after a terrifying fall through a trestle near Palmer highlights the dangers of early industrial work.
- The Miracle Hen of the Barn
A farmer reports an astonishing, if scientifically questionable, account of a hen surviving over a month without food or water.
- Building the Great Northern Through the Cascades
Tunnel construction for the Great Northern Railroad claims a life as laborers battle mountain mud and unrelenting rain.
- The Promised Land of the Skagit Valley
A booster’s vision of Fairhaven as the essential gateway for the vast mineral and agricultural wealth of the Skagit Valley.
- The Trunk in the Belltown Earth
Two prospectors looking for a brickyard site uncovered more than clay when they stumbled upon a hidden trunk containing a man’s remains.
- Seattle’s Endless War Against the Hillside
In 1878, city officials scrambled to grade Mill Street to fix dangerous mudslides—a challenge that continues to plague Seattle’s topography today.
- The Land Along Chamokane Creek Was About to Change Hands
Stevens County commissioners back a plan to open ten sections of the Spokane Indian Reservation to homesteaders who 'cannot afford to buy better land.'
- The Quest for Water at Temperance and Mercer
Developer D. T. Denny is drilling deep into the ground of North Seattle, hoping to tap an artesian aquifer to secure water for his property.
- The Great Timber Land Swindle: How Seattle’s Elite Claimed Farmable Soil as Forest
A federal commissioner rules that the lands held by Bailey and Hawley are actually fertile agricultural soil, not timber land, overturning decades of speculative entries in the Samish Lake district.
- A Sober Assessment of the Seattle Boom
A local businessman warns Easterners against the 'real estate sharks' and urges caution for those moving West.
- Seattle's Sewers Were Cracking All Over Town — and the City Engineer Blamed the Dirt
A furious letter writer insists the pipes broke not from 'percussion' but from the very worst kind of trench work — and points the finger straight at the man in charge.
- A Surprise Guilty Verdict in a Waterfront Holdup
A jury convicts I. W. Tollman of highway robbery, while the trial of John Murphy for the same holdup of John Smith continues in Judge Bellinger's court.
- Prehistoric Forest Unearthed Beneath Seattle Streets
Construction on the south sewer tunnel reveals evidence of a buried forest floor deep beneath the city's surface.
- The Day the Students Dethroned Their Teacher
A classroom revolt in Waitsburg turns physical, leaving a respected educator humiliated and the school district in search of leadership.
- A Gun Under His Nose: The North Seattle Highwaymen Go on Trial
John Murphy and two alleged accomplices are identified by the laborer they robbed at Front and Clay, while a second sandbagging case ends in a sealed verdict.
- Seattle Celebrates the Great Northern Arrival
Thousands flock to Pioneer Place for the opening of the Mineral Palace, marking the completion of the railway and the Fourth of July.