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 |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 2 |
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 11 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 5 |
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 22 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 10 |
| 1888 | 7 |
| 1889 | 19 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 17 |
| 1892 | 23 |
| 1893 | 28 |
| 1894 | 12 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 5 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 8 |
| 1904 | 7 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1923 | 6 |
| 1924 | 2 |
242 stories matching ghost
- The Ghost Island of Arcadia
A squatter fights for the right to claim a six-acre island that the federal government officially claims doesn't exist.
- The 'Chicken Oath' in Municipal Court
To ensure truthful testimony, a Seattle courtroom turns to a traditional Chinese oath involving the decapitation of a rooster.
- The Ghost of the Kneeland Hotel Fire
After three years in jail, a petition for clemency for Angus McClain sparks local debate over reformation, justice, and the costs of a retrial.
- The San Juan Huntresses of English Camp
Two young women in the San Juan Islands hunted a deer without a gun, pursuing it by rowboat until they could dispatch it with a knife.
- The Great Capital Debate of 1889
Proponents of North Yakima push to designate the rising agricultural hub as the state capital, highlighting its central geography.
- The Ghost in the Phonograph
A bachelor’s secret engagement is exposed by a misplaced recording, setting off a chain reaction of social scandal and technological wonder in a turn-of-the-century mansion.
- The Ghost of the Burned Cabin
A suspected insurance fraud case grips 1892 Seattle after a mysterious fire leaves charred remains and a missing man in question.
- The Ghost of the Printing Contract
A standoff between rival city newspapers turns the Seattle City Council into an empty room.
- The Ghost of the Willow Lane
A decades-long obsession over a lost love and a stolen romance in the quiet corners of old Seattle.
- The Ghost of the White River Massacre
Decades after the violence of 1855, the estate of a pioneer family is resurrected in court, revealing a grim history of frontier life.
- The Ghost House of Monte Cristo
A widow with two children was lured to the mining camp with the promise of a house that didn't exist.
- The Ghostly Burglar of Main and 12th
A Seattle household tried everything to stop a persistent intruder—from chair barricades to tin-pan alarms—but the culprit bypassed every obstacle, leaving the family baffled.
- The Ghost of a Property Blunder
Years after a land sale to the federal government for a Seattle lighthouse, officials find a clerical error that threatens the entire title to the property.
- The Great Fire of 1889: Resilience in the Ashes
A traveler recounts their journey across the continent to find a city 'wiped out' but miraculously still standing, thriving in tents and determined to rebuild.
- Ghosts in the Voting Booth: Election Fraud Suspected in Tacoma
Registration rolls are found to be packed with names of men who don't exist and addresses that aren't there, raising alarms of election rigging.
- The Ghost Ship of Gray's Harbor
A schooner overdue by nine weeks is discovered wrecked on Peterson's Point, leaving no survivors from its five-man crew.
- Industrial Accident at the Everett Waterfront
A deck hand is critically injured after a barrel of acid falls, highlighting the daily dangers faced by laborers on the docks.
- 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 Ghost of Conconully
The Okanogan county seat was reduced to smoldering ruins in just two hours, leaving only the courthouse and schoolhouse standing.
- The Ghost in the Trunk
Two hunters stumble upon a gruesome find near the shoreline, sparking a coroner's investigation into an forgotten grave.
- The Fiddle That Haunted a Kitchen
Superstition takes hold in a Milford hotel kitchen when a violin begins to play on its own.
- The Ghost Ships of Lake Union
After sitting idle since the Great War, a fleet of wooden hulls will be burned for salvage, with their deckhouses repurposed into makeshift homes.
- The Ghost Ship Majestic
A vessel sailing from Seattle with a load of coal vanishes, leaving behind a crew of eleven and a city of worried families.
- The Ghost of the Old Foundry
A group of boys wreak havoc in a derelict Seattle building, leaving neighbors to wonder about the city's crumbling youth management.
- The Ghost of a Industrial Metropolis
A century ago, planners envisioned Priest Rapids as the 'Niagara Falls of the West,' a massive industrial city of 50,000 destined to power the Pacific Northwest. It never arrived.