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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 22 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 11 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 12 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 7 |
| 1889 | 22 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 21 |
| 1892 | 37 |
| 1893 | 41 |
| 1894 | 54 |
| 1895 | 43 |
| 1897 | 6 |
| 1898 | 20 |
| 1899 | 12 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1902 | 4 |
| 1903 | 28 |
| 1904 | 13 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1908 | 11 |
| 1909 | 28 |
| 1910 | 3 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 4 |
| 1915 | 7 |
| 1916 | 16 |
| 1917 | 6 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 3 |
| 1925 | 2 |
| 1928 | 1 |
481 stories matching test
- The Price of Falsehood in the Anti-Chinese Movement
As tensions boiled over in 1886, a Seattle newspaper called out local rabble-rousers for using blatant lies to incite hostility against Chinese residents.
- The Lights Go Out in Oroville
A winter cold snap leaves the town in darkness after ice dams the river, testing the limits of early infrastructure.
- The Ferry Fight on the Duwamish
A contest over a river crossing franchise exposes the competition for infrastructure and land rights along the lower Duwamish in 1876.
- Teamsters vs. The Law on Mill Street
A group of teamsters clashes with local authorities over a new parking ordinance.
- The Money Is Here: Seattle's Sewer Bonds Land
A New York firm wires $125,000 to the city treasury, clearing the way for sewer work—and setting up a test case over the funding bonds.
- Seattle's Watered-Milk Case Collapsed on a Question of Intent
An inspector found 10 to 12 gallons of water in a 46-gallon shipment, but Judge Glasgow acquitted the retailer because the ordinance did not require him to test every can.
- Seattle's Fire Drill Revealed a City Almost Defenseless Against Flames
A routine test of the fire department exposed feeble water pressure and sent two firemen to bed with serious injuries.
- The Navy Bunkered Abroad While Seattle Coal Sat in the Harbor
When the USS Monterey steamed north to Puget Sound to test Washington coal, it exposed a sore point: U.S. warships had long been burning British Columbia fuel right past Seattle and Tacoma's own coal docks.
- The Navy's $600,000 Question: Was the Dry Dock Built on Bad Piles?
A special commission of Army engineers is rushed to Puget Sound to test whether the navy's new dry dock was built on bad piling and inferior concrete.
- Seattle’s Street-Grade Tax Test Case
A judge upholds the city’s assessment method, setting up a Supreme Court fight over who pays when a street is graded under an old charter.
- The Prohibition Tug-of-War in Colfax
A Whitman County sheriff’s liquor seizure tests the limits of state law, pitting authorities against the express company in a legal standoff.
- Seattle's Water System Passes Its First Big Test
A morning fire reveals that recent upgrades to the city's hydrant system are already paying dividends for public safety.
- The Gold Rush Hits Grays Harbor
Prospecting fever reached Aberdeen and Elma as locals claimed new iron and gold strikes near local schools and riverbeds.
- Sultan River Prospectors Build a Half-Mile Flume
Deep in the Snohomish backcountry, a group of determined prospectors labors to divert the Sultan River in hopes of striking it rich.
- The Hypnotist’s Parlor Performance
A demonstration of 'mesmerism' at the Hotel Yakima turns local men into sleeping performers.
- The Bachelor's Ruse: A Victorian Love Game in Seattle
A lonely Seattle bachelor attempts to 'test' his ward’s character through a series of elaborate, scholarly letters, only to find himself the one being studied.
- Forty Teachers Failed the Exam. The County Superintendent Called It a Disgraceful Outrage.
A dozen working King County teachers are about to be fired because they can't pass tests in higher mathematics and science they never teach — and the man who oversees them says the fault lies with the law, not the women.
- The Eight-Day Juror Walkout
After eight days on a murder trial, a group of Tacoma jurors refused their meager $1-a-day pay, protesting the economic injustice of the state's compensation laws.
- A Chinese Merchant Challenges Tacoma's Exclusion Laws
Years after the violent 1885 expulsions, a local merchant risks arrest to assert his right to work and peddle in the city.
- The Miracle Bologna That Fought a Cat
A local man tests a dubious 'elixir of life' on his lunch, with shockingly violent results for his sandwich.
- The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels
Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.
- The Integrity Test of 1876
A young dressmaker, struggling against the poverty of pioneer-era Seattle, faces a life-changing moral dilemma when she discovers a hidden fortune in an old waistcoat.
- The State’s Battle to License Horseshoers
Olympia attorney T. M. Vance challenges the constitutionality of a law requiring professional registration for blacksmiths.
- The Justice of the Peace Who Found His Salary Unjust
A Seattle judge argues that new laws have expanded his workload beyond his original pay grade, testing the limits of municipal budgeting.
- A Creameryman Confesses: 'Our Business Conditions Are Rotten'
In an unusually candid letter to The Ranch, the manager of the Rockwood Creamery Co. says reckless price-cutting and smooth-talking rivals are cheating Washington dairy farmers and quietly ruining the state's butter.