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 |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 9 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1918 | 1 |
43 stories matching spruce
- The Log Jam That Held Back a Valley: Skagit Settlers Propose a DIY River Clearance
With a massive log jam blocking navigation on the Skagit River, a settler proposes that landowners take matters into their own hands rather than wait for Congress.
- Puget Sound Lumber Sails for South Africa
A new steamship and clipper line carries Northwest timber to Delagoa Bay and the gold fields of Johannesburg.
- Timber and Ore: Why Washington's Two Great Industries Must Rise Together
An editorial argues that the state's stalled lumber trade and its untapped mines are a single economy — and that a live lumber market means flush times for everyone on the Sound.
- The Boomtown That Stretched Itself Thin
A local builder’s report from 1889 reveals how rapid development and land speculation transformed Snohomish into a fragmented town of 'additions,' while warning of an impending labor downturn.
- The Sound’s Secret: How Deep Waters and Giant Trees Built a City
A reprinted editorial from New York reveals why Puget Sound is the 'Mediterranean of the West,' detailing its impossible depth, massive timber resources, and the strange phenomenon of forests with only small and giant trees.
- The First White Family: A Pioneer’s Log-Cabin Legacy
An excerpt from the diary of a local historian recounts the arrival of Mr. Thompson in Snohomish in 1864, detailing the rugged journey up the river and the humble beginnings of what is now a thriving town.
- The Railroad That Came for the Fir
A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy official tours Puget Sound mills and says his line may soon build freight cars from Washington fir.
- A Canal to Nowhere? Engineers Dismiss the Hood Canal Cut
A proposed channel from Hood Canal to North Bay would mean moving millions of cubic feet of glacial gravel—but a federal report finds too little farmland, commerce or ore to justify it.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.
- The Marsh That Could Feed a City: Snohomish’s Hidden Goldmine
A detailed survey of the vast wetlands between Snohomish and the Skykomish River reveals thousands of acres of fertile land, drained by new ditches and accessible by scow, waiting for developers to turn swamp into wealth.
- Free Wool, Free Lumber: Washington's Mill Towns Brace for the Tariff Shock
Seattle and Tacoma manufacturers warn that the new Havemeyer tariff will cut wages, ruin sheep raisers and hand the lumber trade to Canadian timbermen.
- Chief Seattle's Grandnephew to Give Fourth of July Oration in the City Named for His Family
Matthew P. Seattle, a 19-year-old Puyallup student, will speak at Seattle's Independence Day celebration—a rare platform for a young Native orator in 1895.
- The Shingle That Carried Washington Through the Panic of 1893
A year-end accounting of the state's sawmills and shingle mills shows a timber empire reaching twenty-two foreign countries — and a rail trade down 25 percent as the national depression bites.
- The Log Jam That Held Back the Skagit
Settlers bet their savings on cutting a channel through a massive timber jam—and begged Sound steamboat captains to link the Skagit to Seattle.
- Canoeing the Queets: Promise and Dispossession on the Olympic Peninsula
An 1892 travelogue celebrates homesteaders in the Queets River valley while arguing that Native hunters should be confined to the reservation.
- The Moss-Cloaked Giants of Bay Center
A teacher’s letter from the Pacific Northwest frontier describes a landscape of colossal trees and lush undergrowth, challenging the myth of the harsh pioneer struggle.
- Snohomish, 1898: A Ferry Claim Becomes a Booster's Dream City
A promotional tour of the inland Puget Sound town traces its founding by I.C. Ferguson, its lumber and fishing wages, and the railroad that turned a river landing into a self-described city of homes.
- The 'Rich Deed' That Wasn't: Snohomish’s Wild Gold Rush Hoax and the Community’s Reality Check
A sensational tale of a legendary gold mine in Snohomish captivated locals, but the paper quickly pivots to a sobering assessment of the lumber industry's financial struggles and the region's agricultural potential.