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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 2 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1862 | 7 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1872 | 4 |
| 1876 | 42 |
| 1877 | 19 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 14 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 19 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 5 |
| 1888 | 20 |
| 1889 | 18 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 42 |
| 1893 | 59 |
| 1894 | 35 |
| 1895 | 36 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
360 stories
- The Long Road to the Coal Seam
After seventeen years of court battles, a prospector finally secures title to a coal-rich property.
- The Strange Case of the Seized Horse
A Port Townsend magistrate attempts to settle a private debt by seizing a horse that didn't belong to the debtor, sparking a procedural standoff.
- A Candidate's Disreputable Journey
A political traveler's penchant for whiskey and poker leaves his campaign coffers dry.
- The Slow Pace of Chinese Registration
A local official reports back to Seattle after an unsuccessful attempt to register Chinese residents, highlighting the tensions surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act.
- The Perils of the Tyler Street Wharf
A maritime worker loses his final attempt to sue the city for injuries sustained on a dangerous pier.
- The Opium Smuggler of the City of Kingston
A baggage master is caught red-handed smuggling forty-five pounds of opium, but the customs inspector he tried to bribe was playing a double game.
- Smuggling Ring Exposed at Port Townsend
A customs inspector is accused of taking bribes to let opium cross the border, revealing a deeper scandal within the agency.
- Storms and Steamers on the Sound
The steamer Rosalie returns to port after springing a leak in heavy seas, as gale winds batter the Puget Sound maritime trade.
- The Steam Came Through the Firebox
Fred Hutchinson was feeding wood into the Monticello's boiler when a loose pipe cap gave way. Scalded across his face, neck, chest and hands, he was rushed to Port Townsend while the steamer was towed in.
- The Border Drawn Through the Hop Fields
First Nations pickers from British Columbia were crossing into Washington to bring in the hop crop. The Treasury ordered them deported — while the inspector admitted the growers could not do without them.
- The Postmaster’s Morality Purge
A Port Townsend postmaster suspends a Methodist minister and mail carrier, citing the moral tone of the department—while his own divorce scandal simmers.
- A Seven-Foot Sea Serpent Washes Up Near Cape Flattery
Capt. Stratton of Neah Bay brings a finned, many-toothed monster to Port Townsend, and the local editor reaches for the Laocoön to describe it.
- The Monster Canoe That Defeated a Donkey Engine
Judge James Swan's colossal Northwest canoe sat nine months on the wharf — until one determined shipping agent and a hundred willing hands hauled it aboard the Dakota for Philadelphia.
- The Preacher Who Turned 170 Acres of Wilderness Into a Home
When Port Townsend could not pay its Methodist minister enough to live on, Rev. Laubach moved to Discovery Bay and built a farm — house, fences, orchard and skiff — with his own hands.
- A Ferry Before the Ferry: The Fight to Replace Open Boats on Admiralty Inlet
Whidbey Islanders were crossing to Port Townsend in open rowboats through tide rips and chopping seas. Local merchants and an island resident with $4,000 wanted piers, a steamer and a regular route.
- A Campaign Comes Ashore in Port Townsend
In 1876, Democratic candidates arrived by steamer to cannon fire and a cornet band, then packed Good Templars Hall for a night of speeches.
- The Silk in Her Bustle: A Port Townsend Smuggling Arrest
A customs inspector grows suspicious of Mrs. M. E. Collins’s unusually pronounced bustle aboard the City of Kingston—and finds a bolt of contraband silk.
- Four Sailors, a Filthy Jail, and a Test of the Law at Port Townsend
A British crew refused duty after the ship changed course for Puget Sound. Their answer was a jail cell — and a writ of habeas corpus to see whether the territory could legally hold them.
- The Sickening Sight: A Pardoned Murderer Left to Die in Port Townsend
John N. Young's cancer-eaten face shocked an editor into asking why Washington Territory released sick convicts to become county burdens.
- A Customs Official, a Forged Check, and the Opium Hidden in Coal-Oil Tins
Ex-immigration inspector Thomas M. Fisher was arrested at Port Townsend for allegedly forging a Canadian officer's endorsement and pocketing a $350 opium-seizure reward.
- Smallpox Aboard the David Hoadley—and a Health Officer’s Warning
A vessel bound for Port Gamble brought a smallpox case into Port Townsend harbor. Dr. Minor had the bark fumigated and the crew quarantined, then told the owners the captain’s recklessness would not be tolerated again.
- Four British Sailors Jump Ship—and Find American Liberty at Port Townsend
A steamer captain tried to return stowaways to Esquimalt, but a U.S. commissioner freed them, exposing a diplomatic gap over extradition.
- Three Deaths Haunt One Ship in Port Townsend Harbor
Archibald Anderson is knocked into the hold and killed instantly, capping a grim three-month run of fatal misfortune aboard the British ship Linlithgowshire.
- The Customs Officer and the Paper Trail
A San Francisco dispatch accuses a former Port Townsend customs inspector of leading a ring that forged Chinese immigration certificates. His neighbors call it a smear.
- A Son of the Clallam Chief Goes to Court to Settle His Brother's Estate
In what the paper calls the first case of its kind in the country, an Indigenous man asks a Port Townsend judge to let him administer his late brother's estate — a son of the Duke of York.
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