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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 9 |
| 1878 | 18 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 5 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 8 |
| 1886 | 7 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 6 |
| 1889 | 18 |
| 1890 | 1 |
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| 1892 | 32 |
| 1893 | 27 |
| 1894 | 30 |
| 1895 | 3 |
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| 1904 | 7 |
| 1905 | 4 |
| 1909 | 11 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
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| 1914 | 3 |
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258 stories matching key
- The Boomtown That Expected to Replace Seattle
In 1888, the 'Key City' of Port Townsend was convinced its massive rail subsidy and harbor status would make it the primary metropolis of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Engine House Was Locked—and the Janitor Was at Church
When two fires broke out in Seattle's Chinese quarter, the engine house was locked and the janitor held the key. Bystanders put out the flames—and the paper demanded a fire department overhaul.
- Midnight Robbers Rule the Streets
A wave of armed robberies plagues Seattle, leaving citizens wary and police in pursuit of a gang masking themselves with skeleton keys and spare rags.
- The Great Cigar Heist of Third Street
A burglar uses skeleton keys to bypass a shop lock, proving that even petty thieves in 1894 had expensive, specific tastes.
- The Boomtown That Expected to Be 'The Next San Francisco'
In 1888, the 'Key City' of Port Townsend was so convinced of its impending status as a transcontinental rail terminus that it began feverishly selling off the entire landscape.
- A Bartender, a Bullet, and a Stranger on the Bridge
Seattle police found Harvey L. Hellossis dying on the Grant Street bridge. His saloon was robbed, his keys were missing, and the man last seen with him had vanished.
- The Man Who Couldn't Be Named: A Mysterious Suicide on Pike Street
In the early hours of a Seattle morning in 1902, a barkeeper discovers a stranger dead in his room with no ID and a note addressed to 'Joe.' The city is left with a body, a mystery, and a morphine bottle.
- The Flying-Machine Inventor Who Vanished and Left the Carpenter Unpaid
An Englishman named Howard hired a Tacoma carpenter to build a “living machine,” then disappeared with the key to the storeroom—leaving a very anxious workman and a mysterious apparatus.
- The Hotel Thief Who Slept Under the Same Roof He Robbed
Sat Sanguinetti begged the Rainier Hotel's manager for a place to sleep, then used a skeleton key to strip its guests of diamonds and gold — until a private watchman caught him red-handed.
- The Tragedy on the Everett Docks
A body pulled from the river identified by a simple metal tag on a key ring.
- The Failed Prison Escape of Sam Murphy
A notorious burglar's attempt to break free while being transported to Walla Walla is thwarted by a tip-off.
- The Neighbors Saw Him Leave at Dawn
A Seattle divorce trial turned on back-alley sightings, a borrowed key, and an aging co-respondent who came and went at all hours.
- The Battle for the City Pound
Newly elected poundmaster E. R. Harding faces a standoff as the incumbent refuses to surrender the keys, sparking a brewing council crisis.
- The Mystery of the Oyster Creek John Doe
An unknown man is discovered dead in the rocks at Oyster Creek with curious items in his pockets, including a Canadian quarter and a padlock key.
- A Crushed Finger Gave the Safecracker Away
A suspected Kent burglar was tracked to a Railroad Avenue cabin, where police found skeleton keys, drills and powder—then identified him by the crushed finger described in an old escape notice.
- A Yesler Avenue Divorce Scandal Gets a Merciless Airing
Testimony closes in one of Seattle’s most notorious divorce cases, with Mary Steel cross-examined for hours and a money collector named Dugan on the defensive.
- The Political Mess of 1880
A biting, satirical critique of the factions coalescing around the Republican party's nominee, James A. Garfield.
- The Festive Burglar of North Seattle
A bold intruder uses skeleton keys to clean out a home on West Street while the occupant is at church.
- The Unlucky Runaways of Tacoma
Two young men who walked from Kalama to Tacoma seeking work instead find themselves behind bars after a clumsy theft from a local wood hauler.
- Vigilante Mob Lynches Two Prisoners at Whitman County Jail
A masked party of fifty men broke into the courthouse to extract and hang a convicted assailant and a murder defendant, while a jury slept just feet away.
- The Ghost of a Mob in Colfax
Decades after a violent public lynching left a permanent stain on the community, the citizens of Colfax still wake to find ominous reminders scrawled on the sidewalk.
- The Judge’s Double Life: Seduction, Abortion, and the Cover-Up That Shook Tacoma
In 1889, a young canvasser named Sadie Brantner took the stand to accuse Pierce County Probate Judge James Wickersham of luring her into a trap in Seattle, forcing an illegal abortion, and paying her off to silence. The trial revealed a web of deceit involving fake names, land fraud, and medical conspiracies.
- Seattle’s 1876 Anti-Chinese Riot Targeted Chinatown
A white mob swept through Seattle’s Chinatown in 1876, destroying property and threatening residents amid economic fear and racial hatred.
- Drafting the Constitution
As the constitutional convention meets in Olympia, delegates navigate high-stakes debates over statehood, judicial reform, and the volatile question of woman suffrage.
- The Winter War Blueprint: An 1858 Campaign to Subdue the Tribes
A field letter from the Indian war in Oregon and Washington urges the Army to occupy the Colville Valley, cut off Indigenous trade, and expel missionaries and Hudson’s Bay Company employees.