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227 stories matching panic
- The Palouse Wheat Boom Was a Gold Mine—Until the Debt Came Due
An agricultural professor traces the Palouse’s speculative wheat economy: inflated land purchases, the rain-ruined crop of 1893, the panic that followed, and the sudden recovery by 1897.
- The Bond Buyer Likes Seattle’s Credit—and Its Empty Storefronts
W. H. Harris tells the Rainier Club that the West is recovering from the panic and that Seattle has fewer vacant buildings, pro rata, than Chicago or St. Paul.
- The Great Dosewallips Panic
Exaggerated reports of forest fires in the Dosewallips Valley lead to a humorous scene of local panic.
- Banking on Seattle’s Resilience
When the First Presbyterian Church laid its cornerstone in 1893, they buried a message of defiance against the global financial panic.
- The Panic on Stage: How a Shout of 'Fight' Turned a Seattle Theater into a Stampede
In the winter of 1876, a misinterpreted cry during a local play sparked a chaotic rush for exits, injuring several patrons and exposing the fragility of public order in the young city.
- The High Cost of a Depressed Lumber Market
A Seattle lumberman's failed venture in San Francisco illustrates the brutal reach of the 1893 economic panic across the Pacific Coast.
- Logging Camps Stir Again After the Panic
After the financial panic froze the woods, camps around Newport are reopening, adding teams, and waiting for snow to move four million feet of logs.
- The Bank Failed, but the Panic Didn't Come
When Merchants' National Bank closed in 1895, depositors lined up, then went home reassured. The real scramble was for the receiver's job.
- Storm Topples Telegraph Poles, Threatening Streets
A morning windstorm turned a downtown intersection into a dangerous thicket of downed lines, nearly causing a panic.
- 1878 Seattle Grapples With Nationwide Money Shortage
While 1878 brought economic panic across the nation, Seattleites rejected the idea that their town was failing, pointing to local grit and coal-laden wharves as the true engines of progress.
- The 'Freezing Out' Campaign of 1885
As anti-Chinese sentiment reaches a fever pitch in Seattle, the local press advocates for a 'peaceful' campaign of economic exclusion to force the Chinese community out of the city.
- A Deadly Prank at the Blue Front
A malicious false alarm of a plague quarantine triggers a fatal panic in a Seattle dance hall.
- The Martial Law Panic of 1886
As armed vigilantes patrolled Seattle, labor leaders turned to the President of the United States to stop a coup by force.
- The Eastern Oregon Burned at Percival’s Wharf
A repair crew’s paint store caught fire aboard the steamship Eastern Oregon, forcing men to jump forty feet to the mudflats and killing one cook; the blaze threatened Percival’s Wharf before rain helped firefighters.
- Fire Scare at South Eighth and Dearborn
A fire in a small stand caused a panic among nearby residents, who mistook a white man’s warning for a police raid.
- The Ghost Stories of the City Reservoir
While typhoid fever rages in Tacoma, the city council struggles to address public panic over rumors of bodies dumped in the water supply.
- The Northern Pacific Railroad Meltdown
Shareholders accuse directors of self-dealing as the rail giant enters receivership amid the Panic of 1893.
- The Cedar River Siege: How a Power Mogul Tried to Steal Seattle’s Water
Seattle Star exposes the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company’s dirty game: using fake environmental panic to block municipal water rights and crush competition.
- The Vanishing of Little Nellie: Seattle’s Gypsy Panic
In June 1903, the disappearance of a toddler in West Seattle sparked a city-wide manhunt and deep-seated prejudice against a traveling circus troupe.
- The City’s Panic Over a Smallpox Outbreak
When an infectious disease arrived on the Seattle waterfront in 1876, the City Council and local editors turned to extreme rhetoric, calling for the forced removal of the city's vulnerable populations.
- The Brutal Toll of 1889’s Public Safety Panic
After a violent prison break and a string of failed robberies, three young men receive decades-long prison sentences—sparking a debate over justice, recidivism, and the city's grim penal reality.
- Tragedy at the Tremont Hotel
A morning boiler explosion at a five-story hotel left multiple dead and injured, rattling the foundations of downtown Seattle.
- Smallpox Fears Disrupt Trains and Border Crossings
As smallpox cases spiked in British Columbia, Seattleites feared the contagion was crossing the border via Indian canoes and passenger trains.
- The Plague Panic at the Border
As smallpox cases surge in British Columbia, Seattle and surrounding towns scramble to implement strict quarantine measures and mandatory vaccinations to keep the disease at bay.
- The Snohomish Smallpox Panic
A secret grave and a missing quarantine flag reveal a public health disaster brewing in the Sisters' Hospital.