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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 13 |
| 1876 | 6 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 4 |
38 stories matching clear
- The Industrial Revolution of the Puget Sound Frontier
Two local inventors debut a massive, horse-powered stump-pulling machine, promising to clear vast swaths of Washington timberland for a fraction of the cost.
- The Skagit Jam: A War Against Nature for the Sake of Steam
Seattle businessmen and territorial officials unite to clear a massive logjam on the Skagit River, betting that removing the obstruction will unlock fertile farmland and restore vital steamboat navigation to the region.
- The Unsung Pioneers of the Skagit River
When federal funds for regional infrastructure failed to materialize, a group of Seattle loggers took matters into their own hands to open the Skagit River to navigation.
- The Skagit River Snag-Clearer's Defense
After volunteers broke their backs clearing river jams, a community organizer had to fight off accusations of embezzlement.
- The Unstable Ground Beneath Tacoma
A historic landslide on the Tacoma waterfront serves as a stark reminder of the city's precarious geography.
- The Tinderbox Downtown
A small chimney fire at a local tin shop narrowly avoids tragedy, sparking a community call to clear flammable debris from Seattle's rooftops.
- The Great Moss Panic of 1878
Seattle's early city council once declared war on rooftop greenery to prevent the city from burning down.
- Thrown Into a Saw at Colman's Mill — and the Law Looked the Other Way
When Peter Feeney attacked a Chinese coworker in a Seattle sawmill, the man's foot was mangled beyond repair. The justice of the peace declined to hold Feeney, the prosecutor dismissed the case, and the town's paper argued the injury was just an accident.
- Seattle’s Final Resting Place
How a fraternal order secured a new burial ground for the city's future.
- A Child's Fatal Duty
A land dispute in Snohomish turned deadly when a mother armed her eight-year-old son to defend their homestead.
- Sunday School Picnics at Alki Point
The community gathers for a mass outing at Alki, featuring clambakes and speeches under a clear sky.
- The Day the Locomotives Derailed on the Black River
A morning commute goes wrong just outside Seattle when two coal trains collide head-on, sending steam engines into the mud.
- The Tax Collector’s Secret: How Seattle Officials Hid Debts to Profit from Advertising
A local newspaper exposes a scheme where the School District collector withheld tax information, forcing taxpayers to pay exorbitant advertising fees to clear liens they didn't know existed.
- The Pirate King of Seattle
A real-life adventure of a man who survived a childhood on a pirate ship and returned to Seattle to recruit a crew for a treasure hunt.
- The Captain Refuses to Stand Down
A political storm erupts as a county official defies a court ruling to vacate his office, claiming his popularity trumps the law.
- The Rules of the Game: How Seattle's First Lawyers Codified the Fight for Land
When the Washington Territorial legislature overhauled the rules of civil procedure, they essentially wrote the blueprint for how Seattle’s developers and land speculators would battle over the city’s footprint for decades to come.
- The Great Seattle Homestead Fraud
A whistleblower exposes how workers were swindled out of their hard-earned money by a predatory land development scheme.
- The Deadly Prescription of Clifton House
A physician’s sinister plot to poison his young wife for her inheritance ends in a gruesome, ironic justice on the frontier.
- The Gold Rush at the Swinomish Flats
While miners chased gold in the mountains, early settlers on the Swinomish tide lands found that dyking and ditching the soil offered a far more reliable fortune.
- The True Cost of a Store Tab in 1872 Seattle
A young couple's struggle with 'monthly accounts' reveals how merchant credit traps were the predatory debt cycles of the 19th century.
- The Pioneer Moralists of Chehalis
While Seattle’s 1872 boosters bragged about their town’s vibrant saloon culture, the neighboring Chehalis valley was being touted as a teetotaling, prosperous paradise of butter-makers.
- The River That Ate Seattle: How High Water Threatened the Railroads and Left a Gift of Dirt
In December 1876, the Duwamish River swelled to dangerous levels, threatening the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad embankments. But as the waters receded, they left behind a rich layer of alluvial soil that would soon feed the region's agricultural boom.
- The Collector’s Trap: A Seattle Customs Scandal
A clever merchant’s attempt to recoup a fine through a legislative loophole backfires, leaving him out $500 in an era of federal bureaucracy.
- The Ring of Corruption: How King County’s Auditor Hid the Books
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes Gardner Kellogg for refusing to explain thousands of dollars in missing county funds, accusing him of treating public office as private property.
- The Scandalous Governor Who Never Was
A political fixer with a reputation for bribery and forgery was appointed Governor of Washington Territory, triggering a national outcry that exposed the deep corruption of the era's patronage system.