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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 8 |
| 1872 | 110 |
| 1876 | 122 |
| 1877 | 92 |
| 1878 | 208 |
| 1879 | 10 |
| 1880 | 59 |
609 stories
- The New England Hotel's Ban
A local hotel owner strikes a blow against Chinese labor, signaling a rising tide of xenophobic economic policy in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Great Moss Panic of 1878
Seattle's early city council once declared war on rooftop greenery to prevent the city from burning down.
- The Human Spider of Occidental Square
A sailor scaled a 135-foot flagpole in downtown Seattle to keep the city’s Fourth of July celebrations on schedule.
- The Mother, The Child, and The Purser’s Zeal
A desperate mother is arrested in Seattle after a daring escape from the hospital, exposing the cruelty of rigid legal intervention in the 1870s.
- A Father Returns from the Skagit to Claim His Own
A man arrives from the mining camps to marry the woman he fathered a child with, hoping to secure their future after she was jailed for an alleged act of desperation.
- The Forgotten Bid for a Puget Sound Navy Yard
Decades before the bustling military presence on the Sound, visionaries argued that a ship canal connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington would provide the most natural navy yard in the world.
- The Bold Dream to Remake Seattle's Waterways
In 1880, a group of prominent citizens proposed a canal between Lake Union and Puget Sound to drain Lake Washington, reclaim farmland, and create an industrial powerhouse.
- The Judge's Cruel Calculus
A Seattle widow’s quest for justice in court meets a cold, misogynistic dismissal from the bench.
- The Captain in the Counting House
A legal firestorm over whether a retired U.S. Army officer can serve as King County Treasurer.
- The Rules of the Game: How Seattle's First Lawyers Codified the Fight for Land
When the Washington Territorial legislature overhauled the rules of civil procedure, they essentially wrote the blueprint for how Seattle’s developers and land speculators would battle over the city’s footprint for decades to come.
- The Penitent Lion-Tamer
A quiet laborer in a traveling Seattle menagerie finds redemption through a final, fatal sacrifice.
- The Day Seattle Rode the Rails to Lake Union
In 1872, the completion of the Seattle Coal Company’s railway from the waterfront to the lake offered a thrilling, soot-stained excursion for a city eager to join the industrial age.
- The Paper War: How Seattle’s ‘Public Thieves’ Exposed a Corrupt Ring
In 1872, the *Puguet Sound Dispatch* accused local officials and the rival *Intelligencer* of extorting taxpayers through inflated advertising rates for tax sales, framing it as a 'Tammany ring' stealing from the public.
- The Tax Swindle: How Seattle’s Printer Defrauded His Neighbors
In 1872, the publisher of the *Puget Sound Dispatch* exposed a collusive scheme between local tax collectors and a rival newspaper to overcharge delinquent taxpayers for legal notices, sparking a bitter war of words in the territorial press.
- The Great Railroad Standoff: Seattle’s Future Hinges on a Visit
As Northern Pacific directors arrive to survey the route, local leaders warn that without a guaranteed connection north of Tacoma, capital will flee and population will drain to California.
- The Dream of the Rail: Seattle’s Missed Connection
In 1876, a proposal to fund the first fifteen miles of a local railroad promised economic salvation, but petty greed and local infighting stood in the way of the city's growth.
- The Industrial Gamble That Defined a City
How local visionary James M. Colman pushed Seattle into the future by betting his fortune—and demanding the town follow suit—on a critical rail link to the coal mines.
- The Mayor Who Bought His Seat with Lottery Money
In Seattle’s first hotly contested municipal election of 1876, the newspaper publisher who ran for mayor lost to Dr. Weed—not because he lacked support from mechanics and laborers, but because his opponent mobilized the city’s notorious lottery gamblers.
- Grand Jury Exposes Seattle Brothels and Liquor Sales to Native Americans
In September 1876, a King County grand jury reported widespread lawlessness in Seattle, including indictments for selling liquor to Native Americans, running gambling houses, and maintaining public nuisances.
- City Charter Nullified: Seattle Police Turn to Private Charity
With the municipal charter declared void by the district court, Seattle's police force has been forced to solicit donations from local businesses to keep the streets safe from crime.
- The Futility of the Gallows
One month after Seattle's first judicial execution of a white man, the local press questions whether state-sanctioned violence actually deters crime or simply breeds contempt for the law.
- The Mystery of the Duwamish River Murder
A Norwegian immigrant is found brutally murdered in a ravine, leaving behind a cold trail, a missing peddler, and a community unsettled by itinerant crime.
- The Great Railway Gamble of 1878
Territorial lawmakers drafted a sweeping plan to bind Washington’s counties together with a railroad, tasking local voters with footing the bill through massive debt.
- The Black Pall Over Washington’s Future
A proposed decade-long extension for the Northern Pacific Railroad threatens to monopolize the territory's vast timber and mineral wealth while stifling independent settlement.
- The Great Jailbreak of 1878
Five inmates, including a man held for attempted murder, escaped a Seattle jail using a key hand-crafted over six weeks.