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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 8 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 1 |
17 stories matching ash
- The Human Cargo in the Ash Pan
A steamship captain reveals the desperate lengths to which his crew went to smuggle Chinese laborers past authorities in the Puget Sound.
- The Ashes of Affluence: How Seattle’s Burnt District Became a Goldmine
While the city mourns the destruction of its commercial heart, savvy investors are turning charred lots into fortunes, with property values tripling in just years.
- The Mob Rule That Swept Tacoma
While city leaders in Seattle urged calm, residents in Tacoma forcibly expelled the Chinese community, marking a dark escalation in the regional movement to purge Asian workers.
- The Day Seaton Went Up in Smoke
A devastating fire tore through a Washington sawmill town, proving how quickly the industrial heart of the frontier could vanish.
- Knights of Labor Declare War on Monopoly
Assembly 101 releases a manifesto against Jay Gould, framing the labor struggle as a historic battle for the future of the working class.
- The Mob That Didn't Hang Wallace
A vigilante mob strings up a man in Seattle, only to be turned back by a local citizen standing between the prisoner and the rope.
- The Day Seabeck Burned
When the Washington Mill Company caught fire in 1886, a small mill town was leveled in just two hours, leaving over 100 men without work and a local entrepreneur's life's work in ashes.
- Chinatown Ash and Ember: A City Under Siege
A devastating fire levels the Chinese quarter in Tacoma, leaving the community in ruins and stoking the fires of anti-Chinese agitation.
- The Great Burn of 1885: A Summer of Ash and Loss
While Seattle sweltered, the timberlands north of the city were consumed by an unprecedented wildfire season, leaving behind a trail of homelessness, tragedy, and destruction.
- A Night of Terror in Tacoma
A massive blaze sweeps through a bustling downtown block, consuming businesses and revealing the precarity of the city's early fire defenses.
- The Price of Reckless Fire in the Forest
A searing editorial from 1886 lambasts the 'gross and inexcusable carelessness' of campers and railroads that leave Washington’s timberlands in ashes.
- The Day the Slash Hills Burned
A devastating fire sweeps through the rural settlement, consuming homes, crops, and winter stores, leaving families to pick through the ashes.
- The Night the Post Building Smoldered
A pre-dawn fire nearly claims the offices of the Post-Intelligencer, revealing the stark difference between fire safety in brick versus wooden structures.
- Rising from the Ashes: A Seattle Sawmill's Rapid Rebirth
After a devastating fire, the Stetson & Post Mill Company leverages modern fire-safety technology and local community support to rebuild better than before.
- 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.
- The Sound’s Secret: How Deep Waters and Giant Trees Built a City
A reprinted editorial from New York reveals why Puget Sound is the 'Mediterranean of the West,' detailing its impossible depth, massive timber resources, and the strange phenomenon of forests with only small and giant trees.
- The Great Dayton Fire: A Block of Ashes and a City’s Near Miss
On the night of April 2, 1882, flames consumed three blocks in downtown Dayton, Washington. While the town paid with its buildings, Seattle’s own fire department narrowly escaped disaster thanks to a single force pump.