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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1916 | 1 |
73 stories matching outlay
- Thirty-Six Hours Rudderless: The J.C. Ford's Last Voyage
A lime cargo catches fire, a rudder snaps, and eight sailors are rescued off Grays Harbor moments before their ship goes down.
- The Mysterious Death of a South Seattle Miser
After a suspicious fire claims the home and life of a reclusive miner, neighbors and local officials clash over whether he was murdered for his gold.
- Making Way for the Iron Horse
Seattle's Board of Aldermen debates the Great Northern railroad franchise, wrestling with the demand for a major depot against the city's future growth.
- A Logger's Amputated Leg, a $700 Bill, and the Lodge That Wouldn't Pay
Skagit logger Daniel Kehoe lost a leg, and La Conner's United Workmen covered three months of care. His Nevada home lodge had not reimbursed them.
- The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach
A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.
- 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.
- The Price of Graft in Seattle’s Sewers
Mayor Ronald accuses the previous Democratic administration of massive financial deception regarding city sewer construction costs.
- The University’s Wish List: New Departments, New Money
In 1895, UW regents asked King County legislators for laboratories, professors and a geological survey—and argued that the whole state would benefit.
- Governor McGraw Says No to Cheap Textbooks and a Cascade Road
Washington’s governor vetoes a state textbook scheme and a Naches Pass road appropriation, warning that both would waste public money—and that cheap books are not the same as good ones.
- Seattle Begins Filling Its Tide Flats
Surveyors lay the base line and piledrivers start a brush-and-earth bulkhead along Railroad Avenue, turning watery flats into buildable ground.
- Seattle's 1877 Plea: Build a Wagon Road Over the Cascades Before Portland Steals the Inland Empire
With no railroad yet across the mountains, a Seattle newspaper argued the city's future depended on a wagon road to Yakima—before Portland grabbed the inland trade forever.
- The Jailbreak Problem: When Every County Was Its Own Penitentiary
In 1877, Washington Territory struggled with a chaotic, decentralized justice system where county jails were crumbling and prisoners were held for profit.
- Seattle’s First Great Infrastructure Boom
An 1877 report captures a young Seattle at a crossroads, boasting of massive rail investments and its first-ever public spending on city grading, setting a precedent for a city that never stops building.
- The Quest for a Clean City
A proposed 'Liernur System' could turn Seattle's sewage into marketable fertilizer while solving a desperate public health crisis.
- The Ethics of the Free Rail Pass
A territorial representative is caught accepting a railroad pass while charging the government for travel expenses, prompting a sharp rebuke on political corruption.
- When Eggs Became Legal Tender: How the Palouse Survived the Panic of 1893
After the rains wrecked the 1893 wheat crop and merchants slammed shut the credit system, Palouse farmers discovered that the hen — and then the hog — could save them.
- The Perils of the Oiled Road
A disastrously bumpy trip by local boosters to Attalia results in wrecked cars and a debate over infrastructure priorities.
- White River Farmers Resist City's Drainage Plan
Farmers in the White River Valley rejected a proposed drainage ditch, arguing the city should subsidize the cost for its own water benefit.
- A Niagara-Scale Power Play Comes to Newport
A Spokane-backed electric company takes over Newport's service, seeks a city franchise, and eyes 75,000 horsepower at Cabinet Gorge.
- The Wooden Pipe Experiment
A Dayton businessman brings a water-main success story to the Walla Walla council.
- Olympia Moves to Outlaw the Insanity Defense — and Gag the Press on Murders
With the 1909 session half gone, Washington's legislature advances local option and an anti-racetrack gambling bill, while a sweeping new criminal code would strip juries of the insanity plea and bar newspapers from covering homicides before trial.
- The Struggle to Build a County Fair
Citizens push to establish the Snohomish County Agricultural Society despite massive logistical hurdles and limited resources.
- The Political Gambler of the Puget Sound
A look back at the life of Captain Marshall Blinn, the independent candidate who once chartered a steamer to campaign for Congress across the territory.
- The Price of Public Safety
City council debates delaying fire limits due to high brick costs.
- The Street Roller Scandal
How a $3,550 machinery purchase for Walla Walla streets became a symbol of administrative failure and potential graft.