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 Valley Wants Out: East Stevens County Pushes to Split From Colville
Fed up with distant county government, Newport and Ione business leaders organize to carve a new county out of eastern Stevens County — and they're willing to let Newport hold the temporary courthouse, for now.
- Selling the Pend Oreille Valley as an Agricultural Eden
A booster’s tour of bench land, clover, and bumper potato crops—and why the railroad and Spokane cream market changed everything.
- The Dog in the Manger: How Seattle’s Landlords Are Killing Its Future
An editorial in the 1876 Puget Sound Dispatch warns that greedy real estate owners are pricing out workers with usurious rents, comparing their tactics to Shylock and urging them to lower prices before the city stagnates.
- A Gas Well Roars to Life in the Sagebrush — and Yakima Comes to Watch
Sixty North Yakima men drove out to a wildcat well 14 miles north of Benton City, where escaping gas hissed like a locomotive, then lit into a 20-foot tower of flame — and raised fresh hopes of oil under the desert. Spoiler: the gas wasn't there in commercial quantities yet.
- A Ninety-Foot Fall Down an Icy Mountain—and He Walked Away
William Wade tumbled down a steep incline in the Cascades while hunting mountain goats, bounding off icy benches before disappearing under a snowbank. He survived with bruises and a sprained ankle.
- Seattle's Canal Subsidy Climbs Another Notch—and the Big Money Is Still Waiting
Boosters for the Lake Washington Waterway Company's ship canal report another $1,000 in pledges, while banks and business houses hold back to see what their neighbors will give.
- The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888
When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.
- The Great Fire That Turned Seattle’s Suburb into Ash
A fast-moving blaze in the early morning hours consumed nearly all of South Seattle's business district, leaving dozens of families destitute and causing over $100,000 in damage.
- A Sawmill Owner's Terrible Day: The Buzz Saw That Took a Leg and Nearly Two
James P. Allison was cutting logs at Clear Lake when a cant hook threw him into the teeth of an immense saw. Doctors were summoned from Olympia, Centralia and Bucoda, but the injured man waited hours for relief.
- The Mill That Never Was: A Snohomish Land Deal and a Promise from Washington
While local men scramble for housing and business lots in the booming town of Snohomish, a mysterious letter from D.C. hints at federal support for a post route to Pullman, just as a major timber contract is awarded locally.
- Buy Our Waterworks, or We'll Sell You to a Syndicate
Tacoma's Light and Water Company files its inventory for a $1.75 million city buyout — and a critic notes that the company has always known how to win a Tacoma election.
- Kennewick’s Merchants Are Losing the Town to the Mail-Order Catalogue
A Courier-Reporter editor counts the local ads that never ran—and blames Kennewick shopkeepers, not distant catalogue houses, for the trade slipping away.
- Forget the Mines — Grab the Land, the Paper Urges
As thousands stampede toward the Coeur d'Alene diggings, the Review argues the real fortune is in the free government land around Spokane Falls, and that the window is closing fast.
- The Stockyards That Were Really About Raising the Value of Sand and Sagebrush
When Pasco promoters pushed stockyards at Ainsworth, Kennewick’s editor saw a railroad, a packer and owners of “practically worthless” land getting a public subsidy. He wanted no part of it.
- The Pigeons That Flew Down From Rainier With News the Mountain Was Smoking
Seven homing pigeons carried dispatches from Mount Rainier's slopes, disproving the era's altitude limits and delivering word that the volcano was steaming.
- The War Department Drafted the Newspaper Editor
Washington picked the Courier-Reporter to run the national 'Smileage' coupon drive in the Kennewick district — and the high school's Senior Ten volunteered to sell the books at the Finley store and the Hover post office.
- The Iron City on the Lake: Peter Kirk’s $20 Million Steel Empire Rises in Kirkland
British industrialist Peter Kirk has secured 2,000 acres on Lake Washington to build a massive iron and steel works, complete with a planned company town. Local leaders hail it as the catalyst for Seattle's transformation into a global manufacturing hub.
- The Night They Walked to an Indian Village: A Shipwreck Survivor’s Tale
After the steamer *Port Gordon* smashed against rocks near Destruction Island, four men survived a nightmare of broken lines and drowning comrades by building a raft from hatches—and then walking ten miles through the brush.
- A Hotel Room, a Gas Jet, and a Fight for One Young Life
George McLaughlin was found unconscious in room 43 of the Queen City Hotel. Doctors worked into the night.
- The San Jose Scale Was Already on Stage in Yakima
A state fruit inspector warned that infected nursery trees displayed for a pruning demonstration could have seeded orchards across the valley.
- The Fight to Make Rainier Uncle Sam’s Park
In 1894, scientists and mountaineers asked Congress to protect Mount Rainier as a national park—while carefully carving out the coal fields and leaving railroad passes open.
- Thirty-Six Hours Rudderless: The J.C. Ford's Last Voyage
A lime cargo catches fire, a rudder snaps, and eight sailors are rescued off Grays Harbor moments before their ship goes down.
- The Wires That Grew With Seattle
How the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company rode Seattle from a forest village to a 25,000-person city — and, when the Great Fire of 1889 burned its plant out of existence, rebuilt the service in tents within ten days.
- The Buckeye Went Down in a Gale—and One Passenger Almost Made It
The steamer Buckeye broke up in the Salish Sea; a rescued stockman described how shifting cattle, a swamped lifeboat, and freezing water killed H. Kautzman within sight of help.
- The Sewer Plan That Imagined a City of 200,000
Engineer J. S. Camp presented Olympia’s council with a tide-powered reservoir and automatic flush tanks, a system meant to grow with the capital city.