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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 16 |
| 1877 | 16 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 5 |
40 stories matching Bodie
- The Ghostly Search for a Lost Sailor
When a sailor drowned at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1876, his grieving colleagues turned to a grim folk remedy to recover his body.
- An Indigenous Woman Left to Die at Seattle’s Mechanic Wharf
When five Indigenous people were rescued from a capsized canoe in Seattle’s harbor, a local resident threw one woman into the mud and left her to die.
- The Tragedy at No. 21 Nixons Street
A Puget Sound trader’s sudden descent into madness leaves a wife dead and himself in his blood on the floor of their attic home.
- The Ghost of Washington Street
A retired detective recalls a haunting murder investigation in 1870s Seattle, where a father’s vengeance and a daughter’s grief ended in the deep waters of the bay.
- The Frontier Scares of 1878
A report from Kittitas detailing a violent encounter on Poll Creek sparks fears of conflict between settlers and Wilbur’s band of Indians in the Yakima territory.
- The Man Who Wouldn't Die: The Last Survivor of the Alamo Walks Among Us
A heroic frontiersman named Jimmy Kennon has resurfaced in Washington Territory, proving false reports of his death. He claims to be the sole survivor of the Battle of the Alamo and a legendary scout who once rescued a captive from Sioux hands.
- The Final Journey Home: Chinese Funeral Customs in Early Seattle
A detailed 1877 account reveals the elaborate mourning practices of Seattle's Chinese community, centering on the sacred duty to return the deceased to their ancestral land.
- The Bank That Ate Seven Men: A Collapse in the Blue Point Claim
In a gruesome industrial accident on April 13, 1877, a bank of earth at the Blue Point mine in Smartsville buried seven miners alive and wounded six more, halting business for miles around.
- The Clam-Seller and the Street-Car: A Seattle Reckoning
When a man was killed by a train on a Seattle street, a bystander's callous comment sparked a confrontation that exposed the deep-seated tensions of the city's growing industrial landscape.
- The Vampire Panic of Seattle
A grim, gothic account of a 'vampire' outbreak in a local immigrant community, documenting the desperate, violent lengths to which villagers went to protect their own.
- The Stone That Crushed: A Fatal Day at Seattle’s City Hall
Two men are killed and another left for dead when a scaffold collapses during the construction of the new municipal building, exposing the deadly risks of civic ambition in 1877.
- The Tragedy of a Lonely Life in Seattle
A man's desperate act of suicide on Commercial Street illuminates the harsh isolation and economic despair of Seattle’s early frontier days.
- The Man Who Bought His Own Death
In a Seattle saloon in 1877, a gambler named 'Hilly Hacker' was challenged by a stranger with a shotgun. Hacker’s response? He bet the man $50 that he could buy him 20,000 shares of stock at a higher price before the market opened—proving his nerve was stronger than any weapon.
- The Stranger at the Clarendon Hotel
A young man arrives in Seattle, keeps to himself, and ends his life in a locked hotel room, leaving behind only a name that may not be his own.
- Seattle’s Lost Bid for the Navy Yard
While the 1876 Congressional committee debated the future of the Mare Island naval site, Seattle’s local press made a bold, visionary pitch for the Sound as the premier industrial hub of the Pacific.
- The Ghost in the Photograph
A grieving man’s obsession with the afterlife leads him into the dark, hidden corners of 1876 Seattle—and to a tragic end.
- The Professor’s Last Trick: Clara Baldwin’s Final Spiritualist Spectacle
In a packed hall in Seattle, the renowned medium Clara Baldwin performed her final show before departing for Portland, captivating the audience with 'wonderful bat' illusions and binding herself in chains to prove her powers were real.
- The Tragedy of a Midnight Gale
A young sailor's life is cut short in a brutal storm, his small boat found shattered and abandoned near Vashon Island.
- The Price of Poverty in 1877 Seattle
When the County Commissioners opened a new poor house, they explicitly designed it as a workhouse to deter the 'dissolute class' from seeking public assistance.
- The Rolling Barrel That Killed a Cauter
In the early days of Seattle, a worker’s death was blamed on bad luck and heavy barrels—but it was likely the result of dangerous labor conditions that went unreported.
- The Angel of Pestilence: Seattle’s War on Rot and Ruin
In May 1877, a local merchant’s complaint about piles of carrion near the sawmills sparked an editorial outcry against civic negligence, declaring that 'malarial vapors' were generating poison and death in the growing town.
- The Lonely End of a Skagit Prospector
After wandering the rugged wilderness for nearly a month, an elderly miner perished in the mountains near the U.S.-British border.
- The Peril of the Palouse Trail
A Spokane County postmaster is left partially paralyzed after a grisly highway accident caused by a horse carcass left rotting on the mountain road.
- The Frontier Infirmary Built for Broken Bodies
As Seattle's industry boomed in 1876, one local doctor established a hospital specifically to treat the frequent, brutal injuries sustained in the region's rugged lumber mills and logging camps.
- The Midnight Rescue at Crawford & Harrington Wharf
A desperate cry from the dark waters of the Seattle waterfront led to a daring rescue—and a surprising discovery about the survivor.