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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 29 |
| 1877 | 15 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 6 |
53 stories matching expect
- The Puyallup Valley's Hop Boom
Pioneer farmers in the Puyallup Valley expect a massive harvest as hop cultivation surges.
- The Great Cedar Jam: How Settlers Cleared the Skagit River by Hand
In September 1876, a group of determined farmers and loggers took on the massive timber jams blocking the Skagit River, hoping to unlock sixty miles of navigation for their struggling community.
- A Victorian Manifesto for Seattle’s Youth
A rare 1876 editorial in the Seattle Daily Intelligencer rebukes the rigid, performative parenting of the era and calls for a more compassionate approach to raising children.
- The Rising Waters of the Talbot Mine
An underground spring floods a local mine, threatening to halt operations just as the town's industrial future takes root.
- 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.
- The Steamer Fanny Gets Stuck on a Wharf
A routine docking in Seattle goes wrong when the tide turns, leaving a steamer mangled and its captain scrambling for repairs.
- The Man Who Vanished Into the Mist
A local resident disappears after a three-day canoe trip from the Duwamish River mouth, leaving behind only his revolver and provisions.
- A Heartbreaking Reunion Aboard the Dakota
The final journey of a dying man and his devoted wife captures the cruel reality of terminal illness in the pioneer era.
- The Raggedy Ball: Seattle’s First Great Social Scandal
In September 1876, the city’s elite donned rags for a masquerade at Yesler’s Hall, turning social climbing into a contest of who could look the most destitute.
- The Satchel Swindle: How a Miner Outsmarted a Seattle Landlord
A crafty miner used a bag of lead pipe to play on his landlord’s greed and secure two months of free room and board.
- The High-Stakes Rivalry of the Seattle Racetrack
After a controversial 'dead heat' left spectators threatening violence, two local favorites prepare for a definitive $150 rematch.
- The Oyster King’s Great Bay: How One Man Planted a Fortune in Puget Sound
While the rest of Seattle watches the markets, A.J. Burr is engineering a tidal empire at Marshville, turning mudflats into gold with dykes and 1,000 bushels of seed.
- The Seasonal Slump Hits Seattle’s Commerce
While lumber and coal exports have dipped, city leadership maintains a hopeful stance on the resilience of the local economy.
- The Unrest of the American Dollar
A 1880 editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer examines the nation's obsession with wealth accumulation and its hidden costs to the soul of a young nation.
- The Push for a Western Migration
In 1877, Seattle boosters and railroad agents mapped out a deliberate campaign to transform the Puget Sound basin from a 'remote' wilderness into a thriving, industrial metropolis.
- The Governor’s Vision of a Boomtown Territory
Fresh from the East, incoming Governor William A. Newell paints a picture of Washington as a land of boundless natural wealth and rapid expansion.
- The 'Pretty Man' at the Seattle Theatre
An 1878 local columnist offers a biting, satirical takedown of a local dandy, mocking his grooming habits and public vanity at the theatre.
- The City That Couldn't Keep Up: Seattle’s Housing Crisis of 1876
As immigrants flood in from Kansas and beyond, the city's building boom fails to match the demand for shelter, threatening a severe shortage before winter sets in.
- The Fight for the First Cascades Rail Line
In 1880, Seattle editors appealed to the 'Walla Walla Statesman' to bridge the mountain divide and unite the Washington territory through trade.
- Sidewalk Perils: A Nightly Hazard in Early Seattle
A pedestrian’s nasty fall into an open eight-foot pit sparks a public call for the city to fix dangerous, unmaintained infrastructure.
- Midnight Intrusion at the County Jail
A night watchman thwarts a brazen break-in attempt at the Seattle jailhouse after a tense standoff.
- The Practical Joke of the Frontier
A settler’s terrifying encounter with two armed Indigenous men concludes not with the massacre he feared, but with a surreal—and expensive—demanding of his household supplies.
- Seattle Incorporates Northern Pacific Iron Works
A look at the birth of the Northern Pacific Iron Works, a grand manufacturing dream that once promised to turn Seattle into a regional powerhouse.
- The Drunken Voter and the Drain: Seattle’s 1876 Election Reform Ideas
While the 1876 presidential election left the nation in suspense, the local Seattle press used the quiet polling day to propose strict new moral and administrative reforms for the growing town.
- The Muddy Road to Progress
In 1877, Seattle's city limits were defined not just by law, but by impassable, knee-deep mire that choked commerce and isolated local farmers.