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1. The Silent Battle of the Salmon Spawning Grounds

   An early eyewitness account of the Columbia River’s delicate ecosystem and the struggle to protect a vanishing resource from industrial overfishing.

   Apr 13, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerCathlamet, Wahkiakum CountyFollow the Money

2. The Brutal Politics of the 1878 Press

   A Seattle editor rails against 'poisoned shafts of calumny' after a local newspaper attacks prominent citizen H.G. Struve, labeling the lawyer a 'deserter' and a 'perjurer.'

   Aug 3, 1878Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King CountyScandal

3. The Newspaper War of Port Townsend

   When a local political faction decided they needed a newspaper organ, the resulting publication became a scandal-mongering scandal itself.

   Dec 1, 1877Puget Sound DispatchPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyCity Hall · Scandal

4. The Cow-Bell Symphony of Old Seattle

   For one sleepless resident, the chaotic nightly parade of loose cattle through the city streets became an unintentional, ear-piercing orchestra.

   Mar 9, 1877The Daily IntelligencerSymphony, Seattle, King CountyStrange But True

5. Seattle's Young Outlaw Dies—and the Paper Prints His Face

   Thomas Blanck, a Seattle criminal notorious before he was twenty, is dead. When the Post-Intelligencer runs his portrait, a reader protests the spectacle—and the city debates how to bury a reputation.

   Mar 25, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

6. A Cowardly Assault on Third Street

   When a sick man defended his son from a neighbor's violence, the local justice system failed to provide justice.

   Apr 11, 1882Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerThird Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall · True Crime

7. The Unfortunate Travels of an 'Imperial' Grifter

   A self-proclaimed Russian noble finds that Seattle hospitality—and the local church choir—has its limits when his 'aristocratic' habits turn out to be nothing more than petty fraud.

   Mar 23, 1878Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King CountyLocal Legends

8. The Moonshiner’s Crusade: A Local Man Offers to Lead a Private Army Against the Spanish

   Arthur T. Abernethy, a Seattle resident with deep ties to Southern Appalachia, has proposed an audacious plan to President McKinley: recruit fierce moonshiners from North Carolina and Tennessee to crush the rebellion in the Philippines.

   May 12, 1899The Seattle StarSeattle, King CountyLocal Legends

9. The Land Grabbers of Snohomish: How Loggers Hoarded Tide Marshes

   A local editorial exposes the speculative tactics of transient loggers who are buying up fertile river bottomlands for quick profit, leaving the valley's agricultural potential in limbo.

   Mar 24, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

10. The Town That Grew on Nerve and Water Power

    A visitor marvels at Spokane Falls in 1883, where brick blocks, a flouring mill and two colleges were rising on pure booster confidence.

    Aug 4, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSpokane, Spokane CountyBoom & Bust

11. The Poultry Aristocracy of 1895 Seattle

    A Sound Poultry Club show filled a hall with prize pigeons, canaries, and incubator chicks—including a homing pigeon said to be the fastest in the world.

    Jan 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMadison Street, Seattle, King CountyStrange But True

12. The Temple of Thought: Snohomish Builds Its Own Athenaeum

    A visiting orator declares the new Snohomish Athenaeum a 'temple of science, literature, and art,' rising from the wilderness to preserve the intellectual legacy of the Pacific Northwest.

    Jun 10, 1876The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyGone Forever

13. The Westside Railway Deal and the Councilman Who Didn't Read It

    Olympia's council weighed a cheaper route through C. M. Moore's block to reach the Westside Railway—until one committeeman admitted he had signed the report blind.

    Oct 17, 1891The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

14. A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows

    Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.

    Nov 24, 1903The Evening StatesmanFirst Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Pierce CountyNightlife

15. The Healing Lake That Hid a Walking Fish

    On the Columbia plateau near Spokane lies a strange saline lake with no inlet and no outlet — credited with curing rheumatism, foaming like soap in the wind, and home to an axolotl that fooled the naturalists.

    Oct 9, 1891The Olympia TribuneMedical Lake, Spokane CountySnake Oil · Strange But True

16. A Wife's Testimony Was Enough: Supreme Court Reverses Divorce Denial

    The Washington Supreme Court ruled that a wife's own account of cruelty and habitual drunkenness could justify a divorce, reversing a lower court that had dismissed Nellie Lee's case.

    Dec 11, 1891The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyScandal

17. A Stagecoach Ride Into the Last Paradise of Bunch Grass

    A correspondent survives a headfirst plunge into an icy creek to report on the new stage route, the boomtown of Okanogan, and the railroad the Big Bend is begging for.

    Apr 12, 1884Spokane Falls ReviewOkanogan, Okanogan CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

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