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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 4 |
| 1876 | 6 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 6 |
18 stories matching dark
- The Sidewalk That Wasn't There
Madison Street pedestrians face a five-foot drop into darkness as structural supports vanish, leaving only a 'shaky' plank over the void.
- The Disappearing Patient of King County
A small-statured man, well-dressed in slate colors, walks out of the Territorial Insane Asylum and vanishes without a trace.
- The Gentleman Wood-Sawyer of Seattle
When a young man’s romantic and financial future hung in the balance, he traded his social standing for an axe to impress a boarding-house landlady’s daughter.
- The Best Birds for the Seattle Barnyard
A local expert’s guide to the poultry breeds that promise the most eggs and the heartiest meals for the pioneer household.
- The Water Took Her: A Canoe Accident at Seattle's Wharf, 1877
A canoe overturns in the dark beside Mechanics' Wharf. The others make it to shore—but the old woman slips away before anyone can save her.
- The Dangerous Gap at Yesler’s Wharf
A gaping, unguarded hole in a major Seattle pier leaves two citizens injured and sparks a call for municipal accountability in the 1870s.
- The Price of a Prank on the Seattle Frontier
A late-night practical joke almost turns fatal when a nervous citizen, conditioned by the rough-and-tumble reality of the city, nearly draws his pistol on a group of teenagers.
- The Dark Mystery of Alfred Hoyle
A body found in Snohomish County sparks a tense inquest revealing labor unrest, anti-Chinese sentiment, and unanswered questions on the Seattle waterfront.
- 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 Automatic Suitor-Smacker
A fed-up father builds a booby-trapped gate to drive away his daughters' persistent suitors, turning a domestic headache into a mechanical triumph.
- The Shack Post Office Scandal
In 1878, Seattle’s postmaster faced public fury for 'farming out' mail services to a cramped, unhygienic shanty to maximize his own personal profit.
- The Great Escape at Port Madison
A convicted murderer slips past a guard and vanishes into the thick brush, sparking a frantic island-wide manhunt.
- The Post Office Scandal of 1878
A scathing critique of patronage and mismanagement at Seattle's local post office reveals a city struggling with corruption in the early days of territorial expansion.
- The Hidden Dens of 1870s Seattle
A citizen appeal from 1872 exposes how unchecked public gambling was eroding the moral and financial fabric of the developing waterfront town.
- Down the Dark Drift: A Tour of Seattle’s Coal Mines
In December 1876, a reporter takes readers on an arduous journey from Lake Union to Newcastle to witness the grueling labor and industrial scale of Puget Sound's most vital industry.
- The Fish That Confessed: A Sturgeon’s Warning to a Sweeping Reporter
In this bizarre piece of 1876 satire, a newspaperman encounters a talking sturgeon at the market who reveals he is a reincarnated swindler, warning the reporter that frauds become fish after death.
- 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.
- Billy Fife: Self-Taught Caricaturist of Frontier Seattle
A biography of Billy Fife, a sailor and self-taught caricaturist whose sharp wit and rare artistic skill captured Seattle's frontier life.