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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 2 |
17 stories matching solid
- The Wharf That Ate Its Workers: Seattle’s First Major Infrastructure Failure
In September 1876, a newly built lumber wharf in Seattle collapsed under the weight of its own laborers, sending Chinese workers and timber plunging into the Duwamish River. The disaster exposed the rotting reality of territorial construction and the precarious lives of immigrant labor.
- The Unsung Pioneers Clearing the Skagit River
While the territory hailed the opening of the Skagit Valley to navigation, the men bankrolling the arduous labor of clearing the massive log jam were left bankrupt.
- The Bread and Butter Vote: How the Custom House Ring Rigged Port Townsend Politics
In a stunning display of patronage politics in September 1876, federal employees in Port Townsend marched in lockstep to defeat local opposition, proving that government jobs were still the ultimate political currency.
- 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 Rambling Village That Wanted to Be a City
An 1876 editorial reflects on Seattle’s humble, sprawling aesthetic, arguing that the lack of architectural grandeur was not a failure of taste, but a deliberate, democratic strategy to avoid the 'unhealthy' wealth concentration of Eastern cities.
- The 'Nile of the Occident' Demands a Road
A settler from Kittitas Valley writes a fiery open letter to Seattle, advocating for a direct mountain passage to boost the region’s agricultural potential.
- The Tribune Editor and the Colonel: A Duel of Paper and Fists
A simmering political grudge in 1878 Seattle boiled over into a public brawl on the street after an editor criticized a local Colonel in print.
- The Road Less Traveled: Seattle’s Shameful Contrast with Victoria’s Fine Highways
In 1876, the local press lambasted King County’s broken road system, praising British Columbia’s turnpikes as a model for Seattle’s own stagnant development.
- 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.
- The Struggle to Clear the Skagit River
Loggers and settlers face a massive, shifting timber jam on the Skagit River, with locals debating the impact of land ownership on the future of the valley.
- The Giant of Wawawai
A crew grading a road near the Snake River unearths the remains of a man estimated to be thirty feet tall.
- The Political Pulse of Eastern Washington in 1880
A pre-election report from the territory reveals shifting alliances and Republican optimism across the Cascade divide.
- The Political Stump in Old Seattle
A skeptical local editor critiques a 1880 Democratic congressional candidate’s visit to Seattle, dissecting his oratory, his 'Solid South' rhetoric, and the harsh realities of campaigning in a territory without a vote.
- The Iron Vein: Seattle’s Gamble on the Railroad
In 1876, local leaders rallied behind a desperate bid to connect the young city of Seattle to the interior coal mines and grain lands, arguing that the railroad was the only path from frontier outpost to global port.
- The Great Migration North: Why Settlers Chose Washington Over Drought-Stricken California
An 1877 report chronicles the shifting tides of American migration as thousands look to Puget Sound for a fresh start during a season of western uncertainty.
- 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 Labor of Your First Thousand
A classic 1876 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer on the moral and industrial value of earning one's keep from scratch.