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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 15 |
| 1878 | 20 |
| 1879 | 4 |
52 stories matching settlement
- New Blood for the Snohomish Valley
Eight to ten new families are arriving to carve out homesteads in the river valley, marking a pivotal moment for the growing settlement.
- Graves in the Valley
A reflection on the scarcity of white settlements in Snohomish County, marked by the arrival of the first tombstones for a pioneer family.
- The Siege at Keets Mine
A desperate labor standoff unfolds as miners seize a Washington claim over unpaid wages, fortifying their position against the contractor.
- The Unseen Agriculture of the Duwamish Valley
A survey of the productive farmland, nascent dairy industry, and pioneering spirit of the families turning the Duwamish and White River riverbanks into a breadbasket for Seattle.
- Pioneering the Skagit River Frontier
As the formidable log jam on the Skagit River begins to break, early settlers recount the hardships of establishing permanent homes in the wild, mud-soaked territory of 1878.
- Life at the Edge of the Wilderness: The Nooksack Settlement of 1873
A rare window into the early days of agricultural pioneers, steam-powered dreams, and the quiet resilience of a solitary woman living on the edge of the Nooksack River.
- The Railroad's Land Grab: How Northern Pacific Hoarded Snohomish’s Future
A local resident exposes the legal loopholes allowing the railroad to retain millions of acres in Western Washington, arguing that this concentrated ownership is strangling settlement and keeping land prices artificially high.
- A Frontier Land Opportunity in Snohomish
An 1877 classified advertisement offers prime riverside acreage, signaling the rapid transformation of the Snohomish riverfront for settlement.
- Trekking Through the Frontier: The Sheriff’s Duty
A grueling journey through Whatcom County’s wilderness in 1878 to summon jurors, revealing a rapidly changing landscape.
- The Gateway to the Frontier: Snohomish Land Claims
How local clerk H.A. Gerhardt turned the legal machinery of the 1880s into a bustling bureau for pioneer settlement.
- The Sunset of a Snohomish Partnership
A local mercantile firm dissolves, leaving behind a trail of outstanding debts and a stern deadline for settlement.
- The Hunt for a Stolen Child
A desperate father traces his young daughter from Portland to a mysterious house in Snohomish City, sparking a quiet, tense search through the frontier settlement.
- The First White Woman of the Skykomish
In the rugged valley north of Snohomish, pioneer settler Mrs. Furtun stands as a solitary female figure in a male-dominated frontier, marking the slow, steady growth of a region destined to become a timber and mining hub.
- The Debt of the Pioneer
A legal summons from 1883 reveals the precarious nature of early settlement, as Thomas French sues Luther L. Thomas over an unpaid debt for 'board and lodging'.
- The Neighbors Who Saved the Harvest
When an ill farmer and his preacher could not tend their fields, the community of Semiahmoo mobilized as one to save their livelihood.
- The Jam That Stalled a Territory: How Local Men Tried to Clear the Skagit River
In 1876, Snohomish residents rallied to fund the removal of massive log jams blocking the Skagit River, arguing that clearing the waterway was essential for settling the vast timber-rich lands of Washington Territory.
- The Unwelcome Arrival at Marysville
As the Snohomish River valley faced economic stagnation, a new townsite at Marysville was pitched as a promise of fertile independence for fifty families.
- The Loggers Who Built a Town: How an Indian Settlement Thrived on the Banks of Port Discovery
While Snohomish debated its own agricultural future, a thriving community of Indigenous farmers and loggers was quietly building a prosperous life in Dungeness, complete with schools, hotels, and dairy herds.
- The Great Land Grab: Citizens Unite to Stop the Railroad's Theft of Public Soil
In a packed meeting at Reinig’s Hall, Snohomish leaders condemn the Northern Pacific Railway for hoarding millions of acres while building a secret coal line, vowing to fight Congress to return the land to settlers.
- The Myth of the Transient Worker
A Snohomish editor argues that young men wandering the river camps for work are missing their chance to claim homesteads before the land is claimed by others.
- The Price of Ownership: 1877 Snohomish Tax Delinquencies
A rare window into the early land-holding patterns of the Snohomish valley, listing the citizens, acres, and pennies owed to the county treasury during the formative years of the settlement.
- The Price of Growth in Early Snohomish
While town elites built elegant homes and secured university futures for their sons, a diphtheria outbreak devastated the river settlements, revealing the stark human cost of frontier expansion.
- The Promised City on the Sound
Promoters in 1879 painted a utopian vision of New Tacoma, promising a perfectly planned metropolis designed for wealth and grandeur at the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- The High Cost of Being 'Across the River'
In 1878, Sumner settlers faced a familiar struggle: a transportation monopoly that forced them to pay as much to haul freight across the river as to ship it 150 miles by rail.
- The Struggle for a Snohomish Homestead
A legal notice reveals the bureaucratic hurdles pioneers faced to prove their claim to the Snohomish river valley.