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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 7 |
| 1880 | 2 |
18 stories matching break
- The Great Log Boom Break: 800,000 Feet of Timber Set Adrift
A catastrophic failure at Colman’s mill sent a massive raft of logs floating into Elliott Bay, threatening the territory's primary industry.
- The New Year’s Eve Rebellion
When a husband dismisses his wife's domestic responsibilities with a callous remark, she plots a glittering, high-society revenge that forces him to reconsider his marriage.
- A Painful Step in Belltown
A late-night walk leads to a broken leg and a warning about the precarious state of city sidewalks in 1877.
- The Skagit Gold Rush of 1880
A winter of record-breaking snow gives way to a spring of fevered anticipation as prospectors return to the Skagit River's golden banks.
- The Stranger’s Fatal Fight at Benton
A bystander’s attempt to break up a tavern brawl in a small town near Seattle ends in a tragic, senseless death.
- The Bold Daylight Heist in Squak Valley
A trio of highwaymen, fresh from a lunch break, are captured after a brief pursuit in the rugged wilderness of the Squak Valley.
- The Price of Sin in Pioneer Seattle
While the city's elite debated municipal elections and infrastructure, a thief made off with a trunk full of coins and jewelry from a house on the margins of society.
- The Ghost of the Old Foundry
A group of boys wreak havoc in a derelict Seattle building, leaving neighbors to wonder about the city's crumbling youth management.
- The 1878 Fight to Ban Corporate Land Hoarding
As Washington prepares for statehood, delegates debate a radical proposal to break up concentrated land ownership and prevent corporate monopolies.
- The Horror on Fifth Street: A Seattle Tragedy in 1877
A prominent local businessman, once a logger and grocer, descended into a violent, drug-fueled psychotic break that devastated his family and left the community reeling.
- He Tore Up the Railroad Track, Then Flagged Down the Train
In 1877, a King County farmer named John Ross ripped up Seattle Coal & Transportation Co. rails to force a right-of-way dispute into court — then warned the locomotive before it reached the break.
- The Skagit Harvest Strike of 1878
A radical field hand pens an open letter from the Skagit River flats, decrying a race to the bottom in wages and the 'swine-like' conditions imposed on labor.
- The Silent Killer in the Boarding House
An 1878 editorial warns Seattle residents that the city's obsession with airtight rooms and coal stoves is fueling a tuberculosis epidemic.
- The Jail That Wasn't: A Tour of Port Madison’s Fortress
While Seattle’s own jails were often little more than wooden rooms with locks, the new facility on Port Madison was built like a fortress—iron spikes, windlass doors, and a view of the sound. But its warden faces a grim reality: no work for his prisoners.
- The Floor Gives Way: Panic and Death at Seattle’s Morris Opera House
A grand opening night turns into a nightmare when the second-story floor of the newly converted theater collapses into the stables below, killing several and injuring dozens in one of the city's earliest major disasters.
- The Day Seattle Rode the Rails to Lake Union
In 1872, the completion of the Seattle Coal Company’s railway from the waterfront to the lake offered a thrilling, soot-stained excursion for a city eager to join the industrial age.
- The Natchez of Puget Sound: A Commercial Hub Rising from the Mist
A dispatch from Port Townsend reveals a bustling port city defined by its Customs House and steamship trade, sharply contrasting with Seattle's own rapid development.
- The Opium Evil: How 48 Cans Slipped Past Seattle's Customs Inspector
In 1877, a Seattle paper raged about opium smuggling, corruption in the revenue service, and a den where 'white men, Chinese and Indians' met—a racist panic that echoes today's drug crises.