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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 44 |
| 1877 | 34 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1880 | 14 |
100 stories matching far
- The High Stakes of 1878: A Seattle Sunday Outing
Before the city’s rapid industrialization, residents looked to the local race track for leisure, with the railroad offering half-fare tickets to draw crowds to the spectacle.
- The Political Fever of 1880
As Washington Territory tallied its votes for Delegate to Congress, local editors traded barbs and grand dreams of a future state capital.
- The Unsettled Nation: Seattle Watches the 1876 Election Crisis
While the nation held its breath over a deadlocked presidential contest, Seattle locals turned their eyes toward the local ballot, formalizing the region's nascent civic infrastructure.
- The Pioneer Race Through the Snoqualmie Pass
Nineteen men embark on a daring expedition to map a route through the Cascade Mountains, seeking a passage where none had been found before.
- The Struggle for a Fire-Proof Seattle
In 1876, a local editor warns that Seattle’s reliance on wood-frame architecture is a dangerous gamble for a growing city.
- The Iron Road vs. The River: A 19th Century Fight for Seattle's Future
An editorial from 1877 argues that the future of the Northwest lies in narrow-gauge railroads rather than the unruly Columbia River.
- Milling Corporations Snap up Washington Territory's Timber Lands
How corporate mills monopolized Washington's forest wealth while the government looked the other way.
- The 1876 Pitch: Why Seattle Was Bound to Boom
A booster’s argument from the pages of 1876 explains why the town was destined to become the 'leading city of the northern coast'—and why land speculators could never stop it.
- The Rising Tides of Industry
An 1873 editorial reflects on the fragility of Pacific Coast harbors, warning that unchecked mining waste and silt are creating an uncertain future for maritime commerce.
- The Struggle for a Fire-Safe City
Early Seattleites grapple with the slow, expensive process of organizing a volunteer fire department to protect a rapidly growing town.
- The Muddy Arteries of Early Seattle
Decades before modern paving, Seattle’s civic leaders struggled to build a passable road to the Renton coal mines, leaving thousands of settlers and farmers stranded in the mire.
- The Ghost Towns of the Skagit Gold Rush
A winter trek through the North Cascades reveals a landscape of stunning beauty marred by the desperate, thieving misery of the failing gold camps.
- The Vagabond Fortune-Teller: Seattle Arrests 'Madame Malla' for the Crime of Telling Futures
In May 1877, the city’s law enforcement decided that predicting the future was a crime against public order. They dragged 'Madame Malla' from her shop, citing vagrancy, despite her having done nothing but read palms.
- 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 Saturday Spectacle at the Seattle Race Track
A century and a half ago, the promise of a purse, a ball game, and a rail excursion beckoned Seattleites to the outskirts of town for a weekend of high-stakes play.
- The Price of Progress: Arson in the Shadow of the Opera House
When an old commercial building was moved to make way for Seattle's new Opera House, a firebug turned the vacated structure into a torch.
- Arson Attempt Targets Chinese Business District
A deliberate fire set in the basement of Wah Chong's store nearly triggers a catastrophe for the city's business sector.
- The Man Who Walked the Continent: A Fifteen-Year Pilgrimage Ends in Seattle
Frank M. Streamer arrives in the Pacific Northwest after completing a staggering 14,000-mile journey on foot across the United States, offering a rare glimpse into the grueling reality of 19th-century travel.
- Seattle’s Cultural Desert: A Plea for a Theater
An 1877 editorial laments that while Seattle citizens invest heavily in private homes, the city remains 'negligent and tardy' in providing a decent venue for public performance.
- 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 Checkerboard Trap: How the Northern Pacific Railroad Hoarded Washington’s Land
An editorial in The Daily Intelligencer exposes how the railroad company used federal land grants to block settlers from claiming homesteads, leaving thousands of acres in legal limbo and stalling the growth of Seattle and Tacoma.
- The Sad Martyr of Snohomish City
A local official’s descent into obsession over an impossible get-rich-quick scheme mirrors the mania of early Washington's frontier booms.
- 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 Great Seattle Silence: A Christmas Without Drunks or Arrests
In a rare departure from holiday tradition, the city remained remarkably sober and quiet on Christmas Day 1876, with zero arrests recorded despite the usual festive revelry.
- The $100-a-Month Bosses: Mining Executives Earn More Than Presidents
A new report reveals that the average salary of mining officials in Washington Territory is $100 per month—double that of state legislators and far exceeding the wages of the men who dig the ore.