Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 5 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
56 stories matching packer
- The Apple Packing Revolution
A new mechanized system at the Kennewick District Fruit Growers' association transforms a chaotic shed into an efficient, clattering factory.
- The Great Butterine Debate
A Seattle agricultural journal takes a hard stance against the 'fraud' of oleomargarine, arguing that the industry's decline is a moral victory for farmers.
- Solving the Strawberry Harvest Labor Crisis
How a temporary federal agency solved the acute shortage of field pickers in the Kennewick region.
- Winter Skating Perils on Lake Union
A mild thaw turns dangerous for skaters on Lake Union, leading to a series of rescue operations.
- The High Price of Bacon
A local packing manager pushes back against rumors that Seattle’s market is driving up the cost of smoked meats.
- The Final Trek of Michael Buckley
A frontier packer and pioneer who survived the rigors of the Idaho mines and the early Walla Walla valley succumbs to double pneumonia.
- Shingle Workers Walk Out—and the Mills Threaten Open Shop
Chehalis County shingle weavers demand a wage increase; manufacturers say the current scale is all they can pay and promise to close indefinitely.
- Wild Goose Bill Meets His End in a Cattle Dispute
The famed Big Bend pioneer and his assailant both die in a shootout at Condon's Ferry, twelve miles north of Wilbur.
- The Hop Harvest: A Seasonal Tug-of-War
As hop growers in the Puyallup and White River valleys race to harvest before the rains, a debate stirs over the reliance on Indigenous and migrant labor versus the desire for white, school-aged workers.
- The Gateway to the East: Why Snoqualmie Pass Won the Race
Decades before the modern highway, historical surveys and trade routes proved Snoqualmie Pass was the vital artery for Seattle’s expansion across the Cascades.
- The Great Hog Debate: Local Farmers vs. The Packing Trust
A reader fires back at critics of local livestock brokers, exposing the tension between small-scale Benton County hog farmers and the massive meat-packing monopolies.
- The High Price of Bacon and the Low Price of Hogs
A local pig farmer fires back at a packing industry executive, alleging that market manipulation is crushing small-scale producers.
- A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish
A federal injunction stops the Point Roberts packing company from taking sockeye while the cannery argues the reef was never reserved to the Lummi—and that 130 jobs hang in the balance.
- Fireboat Battles Blazing Mill on the Tide Flats
McMaster's shingle mill, a sprawling wharf-side structure, is lost to a massive fire as the city's fireboat struggles to maneuver through a congested waterway.
- When Every Eastern Market Was Swamped: The 1897 Fruit Glut That Broke Northwest Growers
A Northwest agricultural writer tallies the wreckage of a boom season — glutted markets, freight and icing bills nobody could pay, and a blunt prescription for growers: dry your prunes and hold for a price.
- The Naturalist Sent to Trap the Olympics' Unknown Animals
A government field agent bound for Hoodsport planned to collect elk, bears, marmots and mountain beavers—and maybe discover a rodent scientists had never named.
- The Midnight Saloon Brawl That Shook Main Street
A political argument over a local election turned violent when a Deputy Sheriff pistol-whipped a veteran in front of a crowded saloon.
- A Peach Grower Comes Home Thanking His Lucky Stars
After a winter among California's smudge pots, Kennewick orchardist D. E. Stull decides a frozen navel orange crop is a worse fate than anything Horse Heaven can throw at him.
- 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.
- The First Pack Train Leaves Spokane for the Mines
Mr. Garrison, a veteran of mineral-district pack trains, launches a weekly saddle and freight service from the Sprague House straight into the Coeur d'Alene country — and the paper urges every prospector to outfit here.
- The Harbor's Salmon Season: 40,000 Cases, 200 Jobs—and a Case for the Lowly Dog Salmon
A Grays Harbor cannery packed nearly two million cans and paid fishermen more than $50,000 in three months, while a correspondent argued the maligned dog salmon was as good as dried beef.
- A Battery Factory in the Pines: Newport Bets Its Future on Dry Cells
One of only two dry-cell battery plants west of the Mississippi opens in Newport, promising 25 jobs by September and a thousand cells a day by fall.
- The Mountains Closed: Stockmen Fight the Cascade Forest Reserve
Eastern Washington's cattle and sheep men warn that locking up the Cascades as a federal forest reserve would beggar every valley town — and train their anger on the Yakama Reservation boundary, which they want opened to their herds.
- The Great Columbia Salmon Run Was Dying — and Oregon and Washington Couldn't Agree Who Should Save It
In 1894 a Portland memorial to Congress warned that the Chinook were vanishing: a $31.5 million trade, thousands of jobs, and a two-state turf war over who got to regulate the river.
- They Called the Prairie Worthless. He Planted Wheat Anyway.
A government immigration inspector bought gravelly land south of Tacoma and proved the skeptics wrong — sixteen bushels an acre of No. 1 hard wheat.