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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 7 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 7 |
21 stories matching spring
- Surveying the Wilderness for Iron Rails
As the Northern Pacific Railroad push reached deep into the Montana and Washington territories, engineers braved brutal winter storms and rugged mountain passes to chart the future of the Northwest.
- Seattle’s Short-Lived Ambition to Become a Whaling Hub
A newly formed San Francisco company eyes Seattle as the base for its North Pacific whaling operations.
- 7,000 Miners Head for the Skagit, But High Water Halts the Diggings
Spring freshets wash out the wingdams on Ruby Creek while hundreds of men wait at the Portage for a trail and pack animals — and California newspapers predict a stampede of thousands.
- A Family Homestead for Sale in 1872 Olympia
A historic property listing reveals the price of a comfortable cottage and orchard near the Old Courthouse in the territorial capital.
- 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.
- An Invitation to a Vanished Olympia Homestead
A real estate advertisement from 1872 offers a glimpse into a long-lost residential property on the site of the original Thurston County Courthouse.
- The Roller Rink That Saved Seattle’s Winter Evenings
Before the city lights were bright, the local Pavilion offered a refuge from the damp, offering lessons and laughter to the residents of 1872 Seattle.
- The Great Thaw: Mountain Snows Turn Every River Into a Rampage
An unusually cool spring held a winter's worth of snow until a few hot days sent it all down at once, flooding the Skagit, Cowlitz and Columbia, drowning farmland and putting Portland under water.
- A Tragic Warning in the Slate Creek Woods
A logger is killed by a falling tree, fulfilling a premonition voiced by his son just moments before.
- The Forgotten Mariners of Puget Sound
Two sailors sue for unpaid wages in 1880, revealing the rough, transient life of the maritime labor force that powered Seattle's early economy.
- The Wife Who Took Control of Her Husband’s Sobriety
A hardworking Seattle woman uses the law to force her dissipated husband into recovery, declaring she will build a better home while he is locked away.
- The Rowdiest Port in the Pacific Northwest
An 1872 report describes the brutal realities of the maritime labor market in Port Townsend, where sailors were coerced into service and returned to shore battered and bruised.
- The Unlikely Tale of the 'Pull-Back' Train Stopper
A small-town mechanic's wild invention—a massive rubber cable designed to hook trains that left without their passengers—actually worked.
- The Great Land Sell-Off
The Northern Pacific Railroad begins dumping vast swaths of Washington Territory land onto actual settlers for $2.60 an acre.
- 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 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.
- Seattle’s Tinderbox: A Warning from the Ashes of Reno
As a massive fire ravages Nevada, this Seattle editor sounds the alarm over the city’s wooden buildings and exorbitant insurance costs, urging brick construction before disaster strikes.
- The Dog in the Manger: How Seattle’s Landlords Are Killing Its Future
An editorial in the 1876 Puget Sound Dispatch warns that greedy real estate owners are pricing out workers with usurious rents, comparing their tactics to Shylock and urging them to lower prices before the city stagnates.
- The Great Mill Auction: A Kingpin’s Empire Divided
In December 1876, the District Court in Seattle ordered the liquidation of a massive timber and land empire owned by A.M. Simpson, offering hundreds of acres and a high-capacity sawmill to the highest bidder.
- 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.
- 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.