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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1916 | 1 |
73 stories matching outlay
- Aberdeen's Schoolhouse Standoff: Bonds, Bids, and a $3,000 Lot
A petition drive and a landowner's counteroffer stalled the city's new school while the board tried to build around the bond money.
- The Struggle for an Inland Route
Olympia’s leadership frets that without a wagon road over the Cascades, the capital city risks losing its status to the burgeoning trade of the Upper Columbia.
- City Council Cracks Down on Hazardous Chimneys
Walla Walla residents are scrambling to upgrade fire-prone flues after a new ordinance threatens fines for unsafe stovepipe installations.
- Taming the Wishkah River
Massive new dams are set to revolutionize the lumber industry in Chehalis County.
- The Industrial Ambition of Monte Cristo
A detailed look at the massive capital investments and engineering feats transforming the Snohomish County mountains into a mining powerhouse.
- The Brick Blocks That Told Olympia It Had Arrived
In 1891, three pressed-brick buildings rose along Olympia’s business streets—and boosters read them as proof the wooden capital was becoming a real city.
- Why Is There No Sawmill on Port Townsend Bay?
With foreign lumber ships crowding the harbor and the mills all seventy miles up the Sound, the Argus does the arithmetic on what the town is throwing away.
- A Frontier City That Could Not Stop Building
Brick blocks, storefronts, and frame houses rose across Spokane Falls as contractors raced winter—and touted the town's future.
- The Lottery That Built Seattle: How a $5 Ticket Bought a Sawmill and City Blocks
In 1876, the Washington Territory authorized a massive state lottery to fund a road through the Cascades. The prize? A steam sawmill worth $100,000 and prime real estate in downtown Seattle.
- 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.
- A Night at the Hall Ruined by Rowdyism
A gratuitous public entertainment in Seattle is brought to an abrupt and disorderly end by an unruly crowd, leaving the organizer out of pocket.
- The High Stakes of Tobacco Farming in Snohomish County
A rural columnist weighs in on the local obsession with hop-growing and the high-risk, high-reward prospect of cultivating tobacco in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest.
- Seattle Says 'Hello' to Spokane, and the Whole Northwest Listens
Seven hundred and ninety miles of hard-drawn copper connect Puget Sound to the Inland Empire, and the mayors of the two cities mark the occasion by orating about destiny, empire and a population of two million.
- The Walla Walla Council's Fire Alarm Debate
City leaders weigh the cost of a new fire alarm system against the growing municipal budget.
- Steilacoom’s Editor Asks Who Will Start the Fire Brigade
With wooden buildings packed into the business district and no reservoir, engine or ladder company, the Puget Sound Herald warns that a single blaze could erase the town’s prospects.
- The Creamery War Comes to the Yakima Valley
Seattle money builds a permanent milk plant at North Yakima, and the dairymen of Central Washington suddenly find themselves with buyers competing for every can of cream.
- The Potato Crisis of 1877
As Puget Sound farmers face crop failure from decades of neglect, editors call for a shift to the 'fine art' of fruit cultivation.
- Olympia's Shifting Rail Line
The Olympia branch railroad plans a major reroute to avoid dangerous trestles and prioritize the lucrative logging trade.
- The Palace on Rails: A Tycoon’s Private Journey to the Pacific
Dr. W. Seward Webb, brother-in-law to a Vanderbilt, prepares a $100,000 two-month excursion across the continent in a private, four-car train equipped with a piano, library, and hidden servants.
- The Unfinished Promise of the Lake Washington Canal
In 1882, a concerned citizen urged Seattle's 'capitalists' to stop ignoring the massive economic potential of linking Lake Washington to the Puget Sound.
- The High Price of the Cedar Harvest
An 1876 editorial from Seattle critiques the 'disproportionately large pay' of loggers, blaming high wages for the financial instability of the industry.
- The Cannery Boom: Salmon, Chinamen, and the Gold Rush of the Columbia
A detailed look at the massive industrial scale of the Pacific Northwest's salmon industry in 1877, revealing the harsh labor conditions and the central role of Chinese workers.
- The Promised Land of Puget Sound
An 1876 editorial from Seattle’s 'Intelligencer' pitches the Pacific Northwest as a hardship-free utopia for those fleeing the failures of the East.