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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 16 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1880 | 2 |
44 stories matching kept
- The Pioneer Woman Who Kept the Palouse Dream Alive
A mother who crossed the continent alone with nine children and a wagon team became the unsung hero of a new homestead in the Palouse, proving she could 'make a lazy man succeed in this country.'
- The Man Who Would Build His Own Locomotives
In 1876, Seattle industrialist J.M. Colman rejected foreign machinery in favor of local manufacturing, predicting a self-sufficient Pacific Northwest within five years.
- The Price of Industrial Progress: A Port Madison Tragedy
A dockside worker is crushed while maneuvering heavy machinery, highlighting the precarious nature of labor in the Puget Sound timber industry.
- 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 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.
- Seattle’s Final Resting Place
How a fraternal order secured a new burial ground for the city's future.
- The Jailhouse Drinker of Tenino
A clever prisoner manages to steal a gallon of whiskey while locked in a closet by using a funnel and his own fingers.
- The Condemned Jail of 1876
A scathing Grand Jury report in 1876 denounced Seattle's 'lock-up' as a public nuisance, sparking a debate over fiscal priorities that mirrors the city's modern struggles with infrastructure and housing.
- A Passenger Revolt Against Seattle’s 'Dirty' Steamers
A visiting general and his party refused to board a local vessel, sparking a public outcry over the state of regional maritime transit.
- The Ghost Town That Wasn't: A Port Townsend Lament
In 1872, the residents of Port Townsend were waiting on a railroad that never arrived, stuck in a cycle of speculation and stagnation.
- The City That 'Surprised' the Supreme Court
A Seattle editor's fiery defense of the city's potential, calling out San Francisco's economic blockade of Puget Sound.
- The Battle for the Unsurveyed Frontier
A 19th-century court case in Steilacoom exposes the tension between local land speculators and the ideal of the 'actual settler' on the Washington frontier.
- The Myth of the 'Frozen' Northwest
An 1877 dispatch to a San Francisco newspaper explains the 'warm belt' of air—the Japan Current—that kept Puget Sound from being a frozen wasteland.
- The Fight for Rail Dominance: Seattle vs. Portland
In 1877, Seattle newspapers were already sparring with Portland over land grants and regional infrastructure, revealing the early economic anxieties of a growing port city.
- The Church That Leased Its Own Hypocrisy
In 1876 Seattle, a wealthy Presbyterian congregation found itself trapped by its own real estate deals, forced to collect rent from two saloons operating directly beneath their prayer hall.
- The Bitter Newspaper Feud of 1876
A public, vitriolic war of words between two Seattle editors reveals the cutthroat nature of early Pacific Northwest journalism.
- The Child Who Vanished: A Tragedy on the Columbia Bar
A two-year-old girl was swept overboard from a steam tug in the Pacific Northwest, becoming one of the many unnamed victims of the region's treacherous waters.
- The Troubled Piano Man of Seattle
After shooting himself in a drinking saloon, a local piano player insists on his right to die, highlighting the brutal intersections of addiction, mental health, and the public gaze in 1878 Seattle.
- The Boom Before the Boom: Forecasting Washington's Future
An 1878 report predicted that Washington Territory’s natural resources and rapid population growth would soon make it a Pacific Northwest power, even as early settlers braced for statehood.
- The Midnight Shot at the Eldorado
A quiet night in a Seattle saloon turns into a tense legal spectacle after a musician goes on a shooting spree during a restless sleep.
- The Railroad Gamble
In an 1878 editorial, the Seattle Weekly Dispatch argues that the economic survival of the region depends on using Chinese labor to build the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, claiming that white capital refuses to invest unless labor costs are kept low.
- The Battle for the Big Cut
On the frontier of 1872, railroad crews fight the Cowlitz floods and 'Big Cut' rock to carve a path for the North Pacific line.
- The Wooden Walls of Puget Sound
A survey of the booming fleet of vessels built in Washington Territory in 1877, and why the local economy was missing out on the profits of its own timber.
- The 'Ring' and the Rot: A 1872 Call for Municipal Reform
A scathing letter to the editor of the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes a culture of county-level corruption and financial mismanagement that mirrors modern political frustrations.
- A Desperate Escape on the Duwamish River
A woman seeking work in Seattle narrowly avoids a violent attack after being lured into the wilderness by a false job offer.