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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 14 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 5 |
30 stories matching cold
- The 1878 Housing Squeeze
Before the skyline, Seattleites were already scrambling to find affordable bedding and basic household furnishings to survive the cold.
- A Deadly Saloon Fight Ends in a Public Execution-Style Killing
An altercation over a game of cards in the mining settlement of Kent leads to a gruesome death and a cold-blooded confession on the tracks.
- The Ghost in the Carriage: A Seattle Wife’s Vigil
An observant reporter catches a glimpse of a woman waiting night after night for her husband, a scene of quiet, invisible domestic sacrifice in the heart of 1877 Seattle.
- The Unintended Comedy of a Seattle Home-Grown Play
A young Seattle playwright attempts a 'powerful' American drama, only to accidentally create a farcical scene involving nightshirts, chin-wiping, and a very confused father-in-law.
- The Ghost of a Train Passenger
A traveler on an express train encounters a sweet, golden-haired girl in a shawl, only to discover she was a desperate murderess fleeing toward the Canadian border.
- The Pioneer Discount Marketplace of Seattle
In an era of high prices, the Seattle Variety Store promised relief by flooding the local market with affordable, second-hand household goods.
- The Second-Hand Sleep Economy
Before the age of big-box furniture, T.P. Freeman’s 'Variety Store' turned reclaimed bedding into a thriving trade in 1870s Seattle.
- The Dignity of the Oyster Bar
A young woman, destitute after her father's death, finds that the labor market is far more welcoming than her former social circle.
- The Romantic Ruin of a Seattle Dreamer
A young woman in 1878 Seattle finds her intellectual ambitions derailed by a fleeting, unequal affair with a local 'villain.'
- The Waterfront Rescue
When two boys tumbled into the cold waters of the Seattle wharf, the indifference of the crowd stood in sharp contrast to one man's bravery.
- The Great Cow-Milking Debacle of the Seattle Suburbs
A rustic attempt at domestic economy goes hilariously wrong when a young couple faces off against a calf.
- 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 Price of a Legacy: The Forced Sale of the Foster Ranch
A legal decree from 1876 reveals the cold mechanics of property loss, as a King County court orders the auction of a local homestead to settle a debt.
- The Territorial Standoff on the Clothesline
A suburban Seattle squabble over laundry, reputation, and the prying eyes of the neighborhood in 1878.
- The Myth of the Independent Pioneer
An 1877 editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer argues that the abundance of free, unsettled land in Washington Territory is the only thing keeping local wages high and preventing the labor unrest seen in crowded cities like Paris or London.
- The Great River Flood of 1876
As heavy rains inundate the Duwamish Valley, Seattle settlers and livestock struggle to survive the rising waters.
- Seattle’s Surprisingly Mild Winter of 1876
While outsiders imagined the Pacific Northwest as a frozen, inhospitable tundra, locals were enjoying a 'genial' December filled with blooming garden flowers.
- The Miracle of the Scalped Man
A brush with death on the frontier: a survivor recounts the chilling moment he was scalped by Indians and miraculously saved by his traveling party.
- The Pioneer Struggle for Seattle’s Water Supply
In 1876, the city of Seattle debated whether water should be a public utility or a private asset, setting the stage for decades of infrastructure fights.
- The Price of Neglect: Seattle's 1877 Health Crisis
As diphtheria sweeps through a growing Seattle, an 1877 editorial warns that city-wide sanitation failures and individual negligence are turning the climate's natural health into a breeding ground for disease.
- The City That Waited Too Long
A scathing editorial from 1880 chides Seattle’s civic leaders for their 'supine' failure to build the roads necessary to secure the region's economic future.
- The Brutal Statistics of Poverty in 1880
A report in the Seattle Daily Intelligence uses cold, hard data to argue that the 'reproduction of capital'—human life—is threatened by the crushing weight of poverty and labor conditions.
- The Misery of the Miser’s Hoard
A destitute family in 1870s Seattle survives a devastating house fire only to unearth a fortune hidden beneath the ashes of their former home.
- The Skagit Gold Rush Mirage
When the promise of easy riches on the Skagit River sparked a frantic, ill-fated mining boom, Seattle’s local press faced accusations of peddling a dangerous myth.
- The False Promises of the Arctic Gold Rush
An 1877 dispatch from Seattle warns local laborers that chasing get-rich-quick mining dreams in the North leads only to bankruptcy, while those who commit to farming the region’s soil build actual wealth.