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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 8 |
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1878 | 8 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 5 |
34 stories matching togeth
- 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 Rebirth of Seattle's Idle Mill
A dormant Seattle sawmill gets a new lease on life under San Francisco capital, signaling an era of rapid industrial expansion for the town.
- The Price of a Summer Flirtation
A classic story of Victorian social mores, heartbreak, and a young woman's calculated revenge gone wrong.
- The Axe and the Insane Asylum: A Tragedy in Snohomish
A local farmer justifies shooting a stranger who assaulted his sister, citing the attacker's history of mental illness.
- 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 Confidence Man of White River
A San Francisco swindler finds his way to a farm near Seattle, only to be turned in by his own conscience—or perhaps his employer.
- The Price of Panic: Foreclosures in 1878 Seattle
A wave of Sheriff’s sales, spurred by defaulted debt and legal judgments, reveals the precarious financial reality of Seattle property owners during the late 1870s.
- The Grange's Predecessor: Organizing King County’s First Farmers
In 1872, the local agricultural community formalized their guild, setting strict rules for annual fairs, membership dues, and the communal defense of the profession.
- The Hunt for the Runaway Wife
After his wife eloped to Seattle with a family friend, a jilted husband tracked her across the coast to initiate a legal reckoning.
- The City’s Biggest Celebration
Athletic contests and a tense yacht race on the Sound defined Seattle's 1880 Fourth of July.
- The Seattle Coal Boom of 1876
As Seattle mine exports topped 100,000 tons, boosters predicted a regional dominance that would sideline the competition.
- 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.
- A.A. Denny’s Seattle Addition Lots Sold at 1878 Sheriff’s Sale
A sheriff’s notice reveals the brutal efficiency of debt collection in 1878, as land in Denny’s Addition and the Duwamish River banks are liquidated to satisfy private loans.
- The Midnight Escape from the King County Jail
When four inmates mysteriously vanished from their cells, the local authorities were left baffled and scrambling to track them down along the muddy roads of old Seattle.
- 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 Crew of the 'Tidal Wave' Strikes for Back Pay
After the American bark 'Tidal Wave' terminated its voyage at Port Madison, fourteen sailors filed a legal action against the ship's owners to recover unpaid wages, lodging, and return expenses.
- The Man Who Built a Road on His Own dime
While Seattle’s leaders debate and delay, a Walla Walla pioneer proves that private enterprise can conquer the wilderness where public funds fail.
- 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.
- The Forgotten Trail to Eastern Washington
A pioneer’s 1862 route across the Cascades is touted as the next great gateway to mining wealth.
- The Great Railway Gamble of 1878
Territorial lawmakers drafted a sweeping plan to bind Washington’s counties together with a railroad, tasking local voters with footing the bill through massive debt.
- The Political Mess of 1880
A biting, satirical critique of the factions coalescing around the Republican party's nominee, James A. Garfield.
- 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 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 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 Dream of a Northern Bosphorus: Seattle in 1872
A period travelogue captures the raw, rugged ambition of a frontier Seattle, where coal, timber, and dreams of a transcontinental railroad promised to transform a small sound-side village into a global commercial power.