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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 19 |
| 1892 | 8 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
67 stories matching commodi
- A Downtown Church Outgrows Its 1856 Home
Olympia's Methodists are quietly preparing to raise a new church at Fifth and Adams, honoring the pioneers who built the old one on Fourth — and the 375 souls who now fill the pews.
- A Half-Million-Dollar Gamble to Shave Two Hours Off the Trip to Olympia
A promoter asks Seattle's Chamber of Commerce for a subsidy to build a twelve-mile rail link at Colby and Vaughn, promising fast steamer connections and a boom for the capital route.
- The Road Less Traveled: Seattle’s Shameful Contrast with Victoria’s Fine Highways
In 1876, the local press lambasted King County’s broken road system, praising British Columbia’s turnpikes as a model for Seattle’s own stagnant development.
- Ten Thousand Pamphlets and a Depot Deferred to Spring
Newport's boosters open a showroom on Third Street, print the best advertising booklet in the territory — and then agree to stop nagging the Great Northern about a station.
- Gold Fever: Spokane Falls Pushes a Wagon Road to the Coeur d'Alene Mines
With nuggets in hand and a sawmill planned, J. H. Curtis rallies Spokane Falls to build a road to the gold fields before a rival town steals the trade.
- The Gambler’s Gamble: How a Frenchman’s ‘Little Bit’ Sparked a Seattle Riot
In the early days of Seattle, a dispute over a small sum of money at a boarding house escalated into a violent brawl involving three gamblers and a local resident, highlighting the volatile nature of frontier justice.
- Whatcom Wakes Up, and Every Town Wants the Railroad
A Walla Walla correspondent surveys the 1883 Puget Sound boom: Whatcom's lots double, a wharf reaches deep water, and Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Fairhaven all claim the coming terminus.
- Browne's Block: A New Brick Landmark Rises at Post and Riverside
A detailed tour of Spokane Falls' most ambitious new commercial building, nearly complete and set to open December 1.
- The Rails Come to Newport: Yards, Depots, and a Town Betting Its Future on the I. & W. N.
Railroad brass walk the ground for new yards, surveyors push down-river, a depot rises, and the town council is asked for a franchise — as high water stalls the Great Northern bridge at Albeni Falls.
- Three Small Breweries, Thirty Acres, and a Thirsty Pacific
Seven years after two men opened a shed-sized brewery in South Seattle, the consolidated Seattle Brewing and Malting Company was shipping lager to Honolulu, Australia and Japan — and boasting that it had made the city the brewing capital of the Northwest.
- Ellensburg's New Normal School Opens on the Hill
Ellensburg's new State Normal School opened to students, a brick-and-stone landmark with a gymnasium, auditorium, electric lights, and a rare surplus left in the building fund.
- The Town That Grew in Ninety Days—and Then Waited for the Railroad
In 1890, promoters carved Anacortes out of the Fidalgo Island forest, sold lots at galloping prices, and promised a transcontinental rail terminal. Two years later, the trains still stopped short and the company wharf was closed to the public.
- Walla Walla’s 1884 Sales Pitch: From a Tent Store to a ‘Metropolitan’ City
A reprinted commercial sketch boasts of wheat, railroads, gasworks and thousands of souls — and lets slip the town’s whole origin story, from a tent on Mill Creek to the great fire of 1866.
- Seattle’s Temple of Learning Rises Between Two Lakes
In 1895, contractors raced to finish a $200,000 campus between Union and Washington lakes—complete with copper finials, a gymnasium and a hillside observatory—before the September opening.
- 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.
- The Town Where Horses Wore Wooden Shoes
La Conner grew slowly on a rocky knoll in the Skagit delta, diked its tidal flats, and shipped out hay by the ton—while its horses clumped through spring mud in wooden moccasins.
- 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.