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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 2 |
| 1858 | 2 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 20 |
| 1877 | 22 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 6 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 14 |
| 1884 | 7 |
| 1885 | 13 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 8 |
| 1888 | 9 |
| 1889 | 19 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 41 |
| 1893 | 41 |
| 1894 | 38 |
| 1895 | 46 |
| 1898 | 7 |
| 1899 | 8 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 17 |
| 1904 | 14 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1907 | 3 |
| 1908 | 8 |
| 1909 | 31 |
| 1910 | 5 |
| 1911 | 3 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 4 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 8 |
| 1917 | 2 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1928 | 2 |
448 stories matching content
- The $100,000 Mill: Seattle’s Legalized Lottery for a Fortune
In 1876, the Washington Territory authorized a massive public lottery to fund a road across the Cascades. The grand prize? A fully operational steam sawmill and prime real estate in downtown Seattle.
- A Wall of Flame Along the Northern Pacific
Wildfires from South Prairie to the Cascades burned Lester's postoffice and homes, threatened snowsheds, and forced railroad crews to fight the flames with locomotives and water.
- Fire Levels Kiona Business District
A pre-dawn blaze incinerates a general store, hotel, and post office, leaving sleeping guests with a narrow escape.
- The Senate’s Betrayal: A Treaty That Gave Away Seattle’s Future
A scathing Senate report warns that the new fisheries treaty with Britain surrenders American fishing rights and invites foreign control over Pacific waters.
- Editor’s Home Reduced to Ash
The residence of J. Whinnery, editor of the Centralia Chronicle, was mysteriously destroyed by fire while his family was away.
- The Great Northern's Christmas Mail Massacre
Local mail delivery fails again as the fast mail train shreds holiday parcels, leaving residents without their seasonal greetings.
- The Fight Over Washington’s Missing School Sections
A Port Townsend case over “lieu lands” reaches a federal courtroom—and the title to hundreds of thousands of acres of school land.
- The Milk Scientist
A breakthrough in chemical detection methods brings local scientists together to test the deadly effects of formaldehyde in the food supply.
- A Burglar’s Failed Heist at the Cherry Valley Hotel
A hotel proprietor used a lamp and a revolver to fend off an armed intruder who demanded the contents of his safe.
- The Lottery That Built Seattle: How a $5 Ticket Bought a Sawmill and City Blocks
In 1876, the Washington Territory authorized a massive state lottery to fund a road through the Cascades. The prize? A steam sawmill worth $100,000 and prime real estate in downtown Seattle.
- The Day Snohomish Became a Ghost Town: A Fatal Accident and the Paper That Got It Wrong
A logger’s tragic death in Holmes Harbor was so widely reported that it appeared in newspapers across the territory—except for one crucial error: they all got the location wrong.
- A Seattle Sermon Asks Capital and Labor to Read Scripture Together
At St. Mark's Church, Rev. D. C. Garrett blames class friction on a Christianity forgotten by rich and poor alike—and imagines employers and grievance committees studying Paul side by side.
- The Thief Who Stole the Wrong Suitcase
A burglar targeting a North Yakima Avenue home made off with a suitcase, only to find the contents were not quite what he expected.
- Ex-Governor Ferry’s Case for Washington
Former Governor Elisha Ferry compares Washington’s explosive growth to California’s stagnation, arguing that railroads are the lifeblood of civic progress.
- Cottage Home Reduced to Ashes
A summer resort property at Lillewaup Falls is destroyed by a mysterious overnight fire, leaving guests and owners scrambling to save what they could.
- Selling the Pend Oreille Valley as an Agricultural Eden
A booster’s tour of bench land, clover, and bumper potato crops—and why the railroad and Spokane cream market changed everything.
- The Last Word from the Dispatch: A Veteran Editor’s Farewell and a New Era Begins
In October 1876, the *Puget Sound Dispatch* underwent a significant leadership change. The outgoing editor, Bebia Brown, penned a reflective valedictory on his five-year tenure, while incoming editor Thomas B. Merry outlined his vision for Seattle’s future, pledging support for statehood and local industry.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: Walla Walla’s Delusion of Wealth
In January 1889, a local paper in Walla Walla, Washington, published an ecstatic report claiming the city was awash in gold dust and twenty-dollar pieces, comparing its prosperity to the heyday of the Salmon River mines. It was a stark contrast to the reality of a region still recovering from economic busts.
- The 'Committee of Fifteen' and the Struggle Against Chinese Labor in Tacoma
An archival look at the exclusionary 1886 resolution that fueled the violent campaign to purge Chinese residents from Tacoma.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- The Neighborhood Vigilance of 1886
When a Chinese-run laundry was established in a Seattle neighborhood, residents didn't petition the city—they took matters into their own hands.
- A Judge Called Unpaid Hotel Work 'Mild Larceny'—and Freed the Bellboy Who Stole $1.15
Nathan Sanguinetti, a West Indian bellboy at Seattle's Rainier Hotel, was convicted of stealing a planted purse. When Judge Humes learned the hotel had made him work 18 months without pay, he called that the real crime—and a pardon followed.
- The Judge Who Was Drunk on the Bench and Threatened to Fill a Man with Lead
A legislative committee in Olympia substantiates charges that Chehalis Judge W.W. Langhorne dismissed cases unread, threatened a man with a revolver, and traded court favors for political help.
- Rejected Suitor Shoots Tacoma Woman and Ends His Life
A young worker targeted by a spurned admirer survives the shooting while the assailant commits suicide outside her home.
- The Cudahy Packing Plant Fire
A catastrophic fire destroys a waterfront warehouse, turning tons of meat into a 'seething mass of flames.'