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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
16 stories matching delay
- City Council Delays Naming a Health Officer
Seattle's City Council stalled on hiring a health officer, wrongly believing the county was responsible for contagion in a city being swept by regional fears.
- The Unending Grading of Front Street
Seattle's downtown thoroughfare is locked in a cycle of costly miscalculations, mud, and construction delays.
- The Fire Station Obstacle Course
A dangerous delay at the engine house highlights the chaotic state of Seattle’s streets in 1876.
- The Pox Patrol: When Smallpox Patients Went Out for Whiskey
In 1880, Seattle's quarantine measures were so lax that victims were reportedly slipping out of the pesthouse at night to hit the saloons.
- The Miracle Crop of the Duwamish Valley
In 1876, a local farmer touted the 'Hulless Oat' as an agricultural revolution for the Seattle region, promising heavier yields and sweeter grain than traditional varieties.
- The Night Watchman's Dilemma: A Call for Safety on Seattle’s Dark Wharves
In September 1876, the Seattle City Council was urged to intervene after late-night passengers were forced to navigate dangerous docks alone, highlighting the precarious nature of early urban infrastructure.
- The First Train to Seattle: A Lightning Ride and a City’s Arrival
On June 3, 1876, the Northern Pacific Railway blasted its way through the Cascade Mountains, delivering 100 Chinese immigrants and a crowd of hopefuls to Seattle in record time.
- The Mayor’s Peaches and the City’s Panic: A Night of Burglary in Pioneer Square
Burglars break into Mayor Gattert’s home on Third Street, fleeing with nothing but a can of peaches, while public outrage over crime reaches a fever pitch.
- The Dairy Dilemma of 1876
Before high-tech factory farming, Seattle's early settlers navigated the delicate, labor-intensive art of managing livestock health by hand.
- The Smoke of Industry at Newcastle
An anonymous correspondent reports on the boom-time conditions, mining accidents, and the arrival of curious elites at the coal-rich settlement of Newcastle in 1878.
- The Wettest Spring in Memory: Walla Walla’s Deluge and the Rainbow That Spanned Mountains
While Seattle residents fret over rain cisterns, neighbors to the east endure a historic deluge that has delayed planting and produced a rare midnight rainbow stretching from the Cascades to the Columbia.
- Seattle’s First Great Infrastructure Boom
An 1877 report captures a young Seattle at a crossroads, boasting of massive rail investments and its first-ever public spending on city grading, setting a precedent for a city that never stops building.
- The Mail Monopoly Hurting Washington’s Pioneers
Settlers in Snoqualmie and Fall City faced weeks of delays because a contractor prioritized convenience over the needs of isolated rural communities.
- The Schoolhouse That Wasn't: Seattle’s Bureaucratic Battle Over Public Education
In 1877, a local dispute over the construction of a new school in Helltown reveals the early struggles of civic infrastructure and the tension between taxpayer demands and administrative delay.
- The Mid-Straits Fare Dodge of 'Kaintuck'
A would-be passenger who slipped aboard at Seattle without a ticket tries to bargain his way across Puget Sound—until the captain marches him to the gangway.
- The Engineer’s Ash-Box Ghost: A Tale of New Year’s Eve Peril
In a column dated October 1870, the Seattle Daily Intelligencer reprints a harrowing tale from an old engineer about surviving a wreck by hiding under his locomotive's ash pan during a blizzard.