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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
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| 1884 | 1 |
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| 1923 | 2 |
80 stories matching fraction
- Connecting the Lakes: Seattle's 1886 Tunnel Project
A new industrial contract promises to link Lake Union and Lake Washington, forever altering the local landscape to facilitate the region's burgeoning timber industry.
- Tacoma Sues Water Company for $1 Million Over a Dry Promise
City officials say Patterson Springs delivered a fraction of the promised flow, making the costly gravity system practically worthless.
- The Day Northport Vanished
A single cigarette discarded in a tailor shop behind a saloon triggers a conflagration that consumes the entire business heart of Northport.
- The Dispossession of Josephine Hatch
A Snohomish widow, unable to speak English, sues a powerful land conglomerate for swindling her out of a multi-million dollar stake in the founding of Everett.
- The Soil-Killer’s Ledger
An 1878 editorial warns that Pacific Northwest farmers are repeating the mistakes of fallen empires by exhausting their land for short-term profit.
- The Lockwood Claim and Washington's 1880 Gold Rush
Reports from Ellensburg described a profitable 1880 season at the Lockwood claim and other quartz mining operations in the region.
- Sailors and Longshoremen Fight a Shipowner's Replacement Crews
Seattle's labor unions rally around striking sailors, protest a federal anti-intimidation bill and push for a free employment bureau.
- The County Courthouse That Wasn't: King County Sells Its Own Home
In a bizarre twist of civic bureaucracy in January 1891, King County is forced to auction off the very building housing its courts because the new one isn't finished yet.
- The Industrial Revolution of the Puget Sound Frontier
Two local inventors debut a massive, horse-powered stump-pulling machine, promising to clear vast swaths of Washington timberland for a fraction of the cost.
- The $3,000 Offer to Salt a Washington Land Claim
An Olympia land-office hearing turns on a state witness’s account of a bribe to fake a mineral discovery—and an expert’s verdict that the ground was worthless.
- The Hops Are Ripe, but the Pickers Can't Afford the Ticket
Seattle's labor commissioner can fill only a fraction of orchard and hop-field orders, as low wages and travel costs leave Yakima and Snoqualmie growers short—and one ranch turns to Chinese workers.
- State Land Is 'Marked State' and Sitting Idle — A Settler Offers 200 Families a Home
A Jefferson County settler writes to the editor offering to plant up to 200 families on vacant state land in the Queets Valley, warning that locked-up acreage means no roads, no growth and no homes.
- Republicans Ride to Spokane to Pick Judges — and to Fight Over Silver
The state GOP gathers September 19 to nominate two congressmen and two supreme court justices. But the real contest is over a free-silver plank, pushed hard by the mining counties around Spokane.
- The State Draws a Street Grid Across Olympia's Tide Flats
The tide land appraisers lay out 150-foot avenues over the Olympia waterfront, naming them for Isaac Stevens, Governor Ferry and Columbia Lancaster, and reserving 300 feet of harbor for wharves, slips and commerce.
- The 1895 Legislature Bets on the University of Washington
A burst of bills from Olympia — bonds on school lands, a liquor-free campus zone, and money to finish the new buildings — leaves the young university's future 'practically assured.'
- The Great Tacoma Brick Boom: A City Building Itself Into the Future
As ten new brick structures rise on Water Street and real estate auctions fetch record prices, Tacoma’s leaders are betting big on a booming future—despite labor shortages and material scarcity.
- The Cable Car That Dodged a Runaway Electric—and the Lawsuit That Followed
A Madison Street cable car narrowly avoided a speeding Third Street electric car in 1893; passenger E. K. Marvin won $1,000 after a second trial over his sprained ankle.
- Tax Delay Threatens Seattle's First Great Paving Program
A new revenue law lets property owners postpone half their taxes until November, and the road fund is so short that the city may stop accepting new street-improvement petitions.
- A Fourth of July Armada: Seattle's Yacht Clubs Race and Light Up the Harbor
The Northwestern Yachting Association gathers at West Seattle to set the rules for the holiday regatta, as local clubs ready their fleets and a fireworks-lit naval parade is planned for the evening of the Fourth.
- The Board of Health Weighed Closing Every School in Seattle
Scarlet fever was moving through the city's classrooms in May 1895, and the men who ran public health argued over whether to send thousands of children home for six weeks — and whether parents could be trusted to report the sickness at all.
- A Mining Boom Bites at the Metalines
New concentrators, a wagon road, a rich strike and a $1.5 million company put Newport at the center of a swelling lead-and-silver rush.
- A $100 Warrant and a City's Credit: Port Angeles Officials Push Back
The mayor and clerk deny a Taxpayers' Union charge, defend a hurried trip to Seattle to pay bond interest, and produce an affidavit against a fellow councilman.
- The Fund That Grew While the Injured Went Hungry
Washington's 1911 workmen's compensation law was meant to protect the men who built the state. A decade later, the lumber industry was paying less into the accident fund than ever — and injured workers were getting a fraction of what the cost of living demanded.
- The Lumber Barons Are Starving Themselves: Why Puget Sound Should Be Feeding Its Own Cows
A local editorial argues that Washington’s reliance on imported dairy is an economic absurdity, urging farmers to switch from beef to Devon and Jersey cattle to capitalize on our unique climate.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.