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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 9 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 16 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1916 | 1 |
72 stories matching outlook
- Bellingham’s Industrial Boom of 1888
A look back at the rapid transformation of the three Bellingham Bay towns as railroads and mills reshaped the landscape.
- Spokane Had Mining Fever, and the Men Selling the Stock Had the Only Sure Thing
A Yakima correspondent visits Spokane and finds a city where hotel clerks, newsboys and waiter girls are all buying mining shares — and where even Ezra Meeker has traded hops for a stock prospectus.
- The Myth of the 'Overcrowded' Frontier
In 1889, local papers pushed back against sensationalist claims that Seattle was a destitute wasteland, framing the 'idle' men on street corners not as victims of an economic crisis, but as voluntary loafers.
- Winter at the Packing-House Picket Line
As Seattle's labor landscape shifts in 1887, meat-packers face a grueling struggle against both their employers and the encroaching winter chill.
- The Political Circus Comes to Seattle
A visiting delegation of Indiana Republicans finds the city 'full of enthusiasm' while disparaging Democratic efforts to court the labor vote.
- Railroad Tycoon Predicts Pacific Coast Steel Boom
James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad, outlines the regional economic outlook and argues that the West's raw materials will soon fuel a local industrial revolution.
- The Soul of a Building
When the new Unitarian Church on Seventh Street held its dedication in 1889, the sermon offered a meditation on how timber, iron, and stone are transformed into a living, spiritual home for the community.
- The Proclamation That Never Was: How Seattle Almost Became a State in 1889
While Congress debated the fate of Dakota and New Mexico, a radical proposal to admit Washington Territory by presidential decree revealed the deep political fractures over statehood.
- Seattle’s New Year Outlook: A Refuge from the Gilded Age
An 1877 editorial contrasts Seattle’s frontier promise with the labor riots and extreme inequality ravaging the rest of the nation.
- Seattle, Tacoma and Portland Gear Up for a New Baseball League
The Pacific Northwest League plots a comeback, with Bellingham Bay, Salem and Victoria fighting for the fourth club.
- Summer Days and Wild Claims on Orcas Island
A pair of Lynden men report on their six-week wilderness camp, navigating smokey skies and the quiet rhythms of the San Juan Islands.
- Border Towns Beg for Smallpox Quarantine — but the Health Board Can't Stop the Trains
Asiatic smallpox is spreading in Vancouver and New Westminster, and Whatcom's mayor warns that daily trains could carry infection into every Puget Sound city. The board of health says the law only lets it quarantine ships.
- Yakima's Artesian Boom: Turning Desert Into Hop Fields
Attorney Fred Parker told a Tacoma reporter that artesian wells and the big irrigation ditches would reclaim 30,000 acres of desert and draw Sound-country hop growers to Yakima County.
- The Salmon Strike That Moved an Industry: How Columbia River Fishermen’s Union Priced Themselves Out of Business
In February 1898, a Chicago buyer predicted that the fishermen's demand for higher wages would force salmon canneries to abandon the Columbia River for Alaska—a prediction that came true within a decade.
- Receivers, Rail and a Wall Street Rally
Receivers Bryant and Brown cut costs, lay new side track and enlarge the Smith's Cove dock—and Eastern bondholders reward the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern with a Wall Street surge.
- The River Is Still Rising: Newport Watches the Pend Oreille
At 16.6 feet above low water, the Pend Oreille has not yet crested. Calispel flats are flooded, dikes are holding, and boatmen are waiting for the water to turn.
- The Canal That Would Reshape Seattle
A federal engineer brings word that St. Louis money is in place for a Lake Washington ship canal, with locks, dredges, and jobs promised within four years.
- Aberdeen Builds Its Own Railroad to Escape the Steamboats
Fed up with ferry transfers and scow shipments, Aberdeen's citizens offer to grade and lay track for free if the Northern Pacific will just run a train — and the company says yes.
- A Woman Campaigner Sells Hartley's Logging-Camp Story
Mrs. W. A. Burleigh, a Seattle Republican operative, brought the governor's race to Kennewick's Commercial Club—and a candidate who refused the union label.
- The Temperance Tour That Went Town to Town on Puget Sound
A Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizer spent July 1883 forming locals and gathering pledges in Coupeville, Ferndale, Semiahmoo and Anacortes.
- Colonel Hart's Mining Rush: A Small Army Descends on the Methow Valley
With 85 men already at work and 400 more expected, Colonel Hart's mining operations in the Slate Creek district are bringing sudden prosperity—and a few bewildered settlers—to the Methow Valley.
- The Day Seattle’s Subscribers Hauled Their Newspaper Office to Safety
When a fire threatened the Seattle Star building in Pioneer Square, loyal patrons didn't just call the fire department—they grabbed chains and ropes to physically tow the structure away from the flames.
- The Boom Will Not Be Questioned
Three months in Spokane Falls and the Review answers the doubters: the hammers are still ringing, the hotels are full, and when the Northern Pacific opens in September the real rush begins.
- The Federal Jobs That Came With Life Tenure
A new civil-service order gives Puget Sound customs officers—from deputies to private secretaries—protection that even a change of administration may not break.
- Seattle’s First Fire Company: A Half-Hearted Start in a City That Needs It
In October 1876, Seattle’s citizens are debating the formation of a volunteer fire engine company. While some jeer at their 'small beginnings,' the paper argues that even a half-hearted effort is better than no defense against the city's greatest fear: fire.