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 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 10 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 10 |
| 1884 | 7 |
| 1885 | 9 |
| 1886 | 8 |
| 1887 | 6 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 15 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 19 |
| 1893 | 13 |
| 1894 | 11 |
| 1895 | 20 |
| 1897 | 3 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 3 |
| 1908 | 4 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1910 | 3 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1915 | 3 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 3 |
| 1924 | 1 |
213 stories matching distant
- The Tragedy on Long Prairie
A haunting account of a family destroyed by poverty and mental health crises, reminding us of the human cost lurking behind the pioneer narrative.
- A Steamboat Race on Puget Sound Settles a Year of Bragging
The Clan McDonald chases down the Henry Bailey on the Skagit route, passing her in a cloud of steam and whistle shrieks while passengers cheer.
- The Tugboat Race to a Distant Sail
Off Cape Flattery, crews raced rivals for incoming ships and went months without seeing home — while rum-drunk gulls kept them company.
- The Iron Vanguard of the Pacific
While the USS Nipsic was an aging relic of a bygone naval era, its arrival at the Puget Sound station in 1892 marked a pivotal, hard-fought milestone in Seattle's rise as a major military port.
- The Streetcar 'Jack Pot Bank' That Kept Olympia's Railway Running
George Marvin Savage had a franchise to protect and no money to pay his workers—so he divided each day's fares into four pasteboard boxes and called it co-operation.
- The Estate That Outran Its Will
A New York inheritance officer comes to Port Townsend to sort out Ansel White's estate, where a will written before the money arrived may leave dozens of cousins fighting over a fortune.
- The Great White River Bridge Feud
A fiery letter from a resident exposes the political squabbling and local power struggles behind a seemingly mundane infrastructure project in King County.
- The Boom Days Are Over — Now Comes the Real Mining
Bead Lake Mining's president tours his tunnel, finds ore looking better than ever, and predicts a new era of systematic development for Newport's mineral district.
- The Night of the Knives: Snohomish Councilman and Printer Attacked in Coordinated Assault
Two men were ambushed on Third Street within hours of each other; one beaten with an iron bar, the other held at knifepoint. The paper warns that 'a general preparation for self-defense' may soon be necessary.
- Apples and Prunes, Not Peaches: The Hard Truth About Shipping Fruit East
A horticultural commissioner's verdict — apples and evaporated prunes are the only sure commercial crops — forces Northwest growers to reckon with soft fruit that spoils on the long haul east.
- The Diseased-Poultry Swindle
A Yakima agricultural editor traces how sick birds moved from farmyards to city markets—and demands that the governor and legislature clean up the trade.
- The Bid to Bring Whitworth College to Seattle
A committee from the Chamber of Commerce scrambled to secure land donations in 1899 to woo Whitworth College to relocate, pitting Seattle neighborhoods against Tacoma’s industrial waterfront.
- The State vs. the 'Gigantic Octopus': Washington Votes to Print Its Own Schoolbooks
Olympia's senate passes a bill making Washington a textbook publisher, selling spellers and readers to children at cost to break the American Book Company's grip — 27 to 4.
- The Long Walk Home: A Traveler’s Ordeal on the Skagit River
In April 1876, a visitor to Snohomish County recounts a grueling journey through mud, tides, and broken steamers, highlighting the isolation of early Washington settlements.
- Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.
- Bullets Through the Parlor: A Waterfront Shooting Spree Terrifies a Seattle Family
A late-night rifle-and-revolver crowd near Stone & Burnett's wharf has turned Mrs. P. Andrews's house into a target, and police still cannot find the shooters.
- The Sausage Maker’s Long Walk for Justice
After his Skagit County homestead was ransacked, a local sausage vendor spent two weeks trudging through mud to find an officer who would actually serve a warrant, only to be met with a revolver in the woods.
- The Land Company That Claimed Puget Sound — and the Settlers Who Fought Back
A federal surveyor's report from Olympia questioned the sprawling British land claims around Steilacoom and Fort Steilacoom, siding with American settlers who had built farms inside the company's alleged grant.
- Keep Your Money at Home? In Kennewick, the Shoe-Leather Trail Led to Pasco
A letter to the editor takes aim at buy-local boosterism, arguing that Kennewick shoppers already knew the real prices—and often crossed the river to Pasco or sent away for mail-order catalogs.
- Enumclaw Farmers Cut Out the Insurance Companies
Tired of paying premiums to distant corporations, farmers around Enumclaw formed their own mutual fire and lightning insurance company — one neighbor pledging to help another.
- The Temperance Tour That Went Town to Town on Puget Sound
A Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizer spent July 1883 forming locals and gathering pledges in Coupeville, Ferndale, Semiahmoo and Anacortes.
- The Iron Giant of Seattle: How a Local Foundry Fueled the City’s Rapid Rise
In 1876, Seattle’s industrial heart was beating with molten metal. As the Puget Sound Iron Works churned out rails for expanding railroads and coal mines, local leaders predicted a future where Seattle would rival San Francisco as a Pacific coast manufacturing hub.
- Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise
As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.
- The President's Visit: Roosevelt, the 'Mysterious Syndicate,' and the Fight for Pasco’s Soil
In May 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt toured Walla Walla, drawing massive crowds and sparking local fears of land speculators. While his speech at Whitman College praised pioneer virtues, a parallel editorial warned that a 'Seattle Syndicate' was hoarding arid land near Pasco, betting on federal irrigation projects to inflate prices for settlers.
- The Great Cow Standoff: When Seattle’s Streets Were Held Hostage by Livestock
In September 1878, a herd of cattle and horses blocked the wharf district, forcing pedestrians to halt in their tracks. The city council was forced to intervene as commerce ground to a standstill.