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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 3 |
| 1871 | 8 |
| 1872 | 110 |
| 1876 | 536 |
| 1877 | 378 |
| 1878 | 279 |
| 1879 | 15 |
| 1880 | 134 |
| 1882 | 98 |
| 1883 | 511 |
| 1884 | 326 |
| 1885 | 566 |
| 1886 | 361 |
| 1887 | 327 |
| 1888 | 314 |
| 1889 | 800 |
| 1890 | 11 |
| 1891 | 340 |
| 1892 | 1,332 |
| 1893 | 1,606 |
| 1894 | 1,246 |
| 1895 | 1,087 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 9 |
| 1898 | 21 |
| 1899 | 366 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 6 |
| 1903 | 153 |
| 1904 | 71 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 76 |
| 1910 | 26 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 5 |
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 28 |
| 1917 | 10 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 12 |
| 1925 | 3 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 17 |
11,240 stories
- The Bridge That Saved a Life: A Near-Miss on the Seattle-Maplewood Line
Engineer Harry Bingham’s split-second brake application stopped a speeding passenger train just feet from a fallen horse and rider on a trestle bridge, averting a catastrophe that would have shaken the city.
- The Boat That Built Itself Twice: How a Portland Captain Saved His Alaska Dream
Captain Spencer didn't just buy a wrecked sternwheeler; he bought the parts of two lost ships and assembled them into a new vessel, proving that in the age of steam, ingenuity could outpace disaster.
- The Night They Were Left in the Brush: A Highway Robbery on Third Avenue
Two desperate men held up three victims at gunpoint near the Union Trunk Hotel, binding them in the cold wet brush while a fourth escaped. One victim’s wife walked within twenty feet of the scene, unaware her husband was lying bound nearby.
- The Evangelist’s Plea: Saving Seattle’s 'Fallen Women' with a House of Refuge
Rev. Crittenton packs the Armory to raise funds for a Florence Crittenton Mission, exposing the grim economics of prostitution and the desperate need for a local shelter.
- The Mesmerist’s Web: How Two Wives Defied Police to Free a Seattle Scandal
Charles Woodruff, the city's most notorious mesmerist and alleged bigamist, remains behind bars not because of lack of evidence, but because his former wives refuse to testify against him.
- The Whistle That Broke a Marriage: A Trainer’s Flight from His Own Scheme
When Alfred Nickella’s wife bought a police whistle to protect herself from his threats, the device backfired spectacularly, sending the horse trainer fleeing Seattle in haste.
- "That Ticket Has Blood on It": The Night Seattle Was Haunted by a Cursed Bill
A mysterious $5 bill with a death threat scribbled on the back sparked a city-wide panic and a frantic search for two young women who vanished into the night.
- The Girl Who Fought Back: A Chippie’s Cane Meets His Cane
When a fruit inspector’s daughter was harassed on Columbia Street, her father didn’t just call the police—he delivered a lesson in justice that left the harasser running for his life.
- The Great Nude Debate: When Seattle’s Church Ladies Tried to Save Their Living Pictures
A fundraising gala at Christ Episcopal Church descended into moral panic when vestrymen declared 'living pictures' (nude art) too scandalous for the pulpit, forcing a cancellation that left donors furious and ladies defiant.
- The Chambermaid’s Lock: A Seattle Hotel Guest’s Brutal Mistake
When a wealthy Chicago businessman accidentally locked himself in his hotel room and then roughed up the maid who tried to help him, he found himself facing a $10,000 lawsuit for assault.
- The Boy Who Vanished Into the Dirt
A contractor’s chilling account of a six-year-old who fell into an open trench and was buried alive—only to be dug out just in time.
- The Great Wire War: How Seattle’s Electric Giants Tried to Buy Their Way Out of the Underground
When the City Council threatened to bury power lines underground, Union Electric and Consumers’ Electric screamed ruin. But the real drama wasn't the wires—it was the council dodging a crowd of gamblers and churchgoers demanding saloon closures.
- The $84,000 Lesson: How Two Men Haggled Over Seattle’s Future
A Walla Walla wheat king and a local real estate agent engage in a high-stakes negotiation for Front Street property, revealing the speculative fever gripping early 20th-century Seattle.
- The Senate Chamber Shatters: A Riot of Words and Glass in Washington Territory
As Senators Ingalls and Voorhees traded insults that turned personal, a crowd of thousands pressed against the doors until the glass gave way, turning a legislative debate into a spectacle of democracy's raw edge.
- The Day the Cardinal Rode Through the Mud: A Historic Union of Northern and Southern Presbyterians
In a rare moment of post-Civil War reconciliation, thousands gathered in Seattle to witness the historic meeting of two Presbyterian Assemblies that had been divided by the Mason-Dixon line for decades.
- The Madman of Pacific Avenue
A mysterious stranger who claimed he could blow up trains with his mind was committed to an asylum after being found pacing outside a Halstead house. Days later, his body washed up in the bay, sparking whispers of foul play.
- The Chloroform Attack: A Seattle Woman’s Narrow Escape from a Robber’s Grip
Julia Torrillia fights back against an assailant who tried to drug her on Washington Street, leading to the arrest of a local baker.
- A Kenton Picnic Speech and the Justification of Native Displacement
At a Kenton picnic, Judge Orange Jacobs cast pioneer survival as historical necessity and used dehumanizing rhetoric to defend the displacement of Native Americans.
- The Man Who Wasn't Mad: A Civil War Veteran’s Battle for Sanity
James A. Balch, a tall, soldierly old man in a faded uniform, was held at the King County Insane Asylum for five years despite being lucid. His family fought him through habeas corpus, and today, the superintendent admitted he had recovered his reason.
- The Boston Mob That Bought Seattle
A mysterious syndicate from the East Coast has quietly acquired over $75,000 worth of land around Lake Washington and downtown, sparking rumors of a coordinated takeover by wealthy outsiders.
- The Landlords' New Playbook: How Seattle's Elite Are Cornering the Housing Market
In a move that mirrors today’s corporate housing boom, lumber barons Yesler, Foster, and Lowman are launching a massive development on Broadway to control supply and dictate prices for new arrivals.
- The Day Two Houses Fell on Their Owners: A Seattle Collapse That Should Have Killed Everyone
W.H. Burrett’s attempt to raise two frame buildings for renovation turned into a nightmare when the structures collapsed onto workmen and families below, leaving only miraculous luck to keep the death toll at zero.
- The Battle for the Ballot: Anti-Suffragists Plot to Block Women's Registration
Leading citizens of Seattle move to declare women’s suffrage unconstitutional just days before the city election, sparking a quiet but fierce political standoff.
- The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Stealing
A young Seattle serial runaway and horse thief, described as having the face of an 'innocent Sunday School' student, leaves a trail of abandoned farms and confused sheriffs across the White and Duwamish rivers.
- The End of Wooden Seattle
A historic property deal marks a turning point as Seattle trades its 'dilapidated, squatty, and dangerous' wooden storefronts for modern, multi-story brick architecture.
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