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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 15 |
| 1892 | 19 |
34 stories matching river
- A Three-Mile Log Jam Opens the Upper Skokomish
After fifty years, a timber company clears a river-blocking mass of logs and puts out a call for loggers.
- The Big River Never Came Back
A tug captain spots a wreck on the Grays Harbor bar and identifies it as the overdue schooner Big River, lost with five hands.
- The Big Ditch That Would Make Seattle a Seaport
In 1892 Senator Squire tried to slip $500,000 for a Lake Washington ship canal into the federal river-and-harbor bill, while Senator Dolph worried about Columbia River money.
- Thurston County Farmers Petition for a Chehalis River Bridge
Residents south of the Chehalis ask county commissioners for a crossing near Rochester and Gate City, saying they are cut off from Olympia markets for half the year.
- Log Rafts Choke the Stillaguamish, and the Steamboats Can’t Get Through
Residents along the river complain that booms of logs are sealing off navigation at the mouth; a federal engineer threatens prosecution if the loggers do not clear the way.
- Twenty-One Land Claims, One Pennsylvania Syndicate, and a Fraud Hearing in Olympia
Federal agents say twenty-one Satsop River entries were fraudulently made for an out-of-state syndicate; the contest is being heard in Olympia’s land office.
- The Murder in Governor Stevens’s Outer Office
A former Hudson’s Bay man recalls the Puget Sound War: decapitated heads carried to Olympia, Chief Leschi hanged near Fort Steilacoom, and his brother Quiemal killed while waiting to surrender.
- Seven Inches in Ten Days: The Flood That Broke Puget Sound
A warm Chinook melted mountain snow into relentless rain, washing out the Northern Pacific, wrecking the Naphtha launch works, and isolating towns from Tacoma to Seattle.
- The Fifteen-Year Flood That Cut Puget Sound Apart
A massive storm inundates Puget Sound lowlands, blocks the Northern Pacific, washes out county bridges, and sends Tacoma developers scrambling to control the Puyallup River.
- A Mountain Fell Into the Columbia
Twin earthquakes rattle Oregon and the Yakima agency — and old settlers recall 1874, when sixty-four shocks tore a mountainside into the great river and buried Chief Wapato John's ranch.
- The Railroad Promises a New Line to Willapa Harbor
A Northern Pacific official says the Chehalis-to-South Bend line will be finished by July 1, opening timber and farm country to the coast.
- Gate City’s Bridge to Nowhere—and the Heavyweight Who Saw a Future
A missing approach leaves a new Black River bridge unusable, diverting trade to Centralia—but John L. Sullivan thinks the town could host his next fight.
- Hand Grenades for Passengers? The Perils of Olympia’s Naphtha Streetcar
An editorial imagines the explosive risks of Mr. Savage’s naphtha-powered streetcar on Main Street, citing a recent launch fire near Aberdeen.
- He Kept a Dead Man's Skull as a Souvenir — and the Paper Printed the Story
Writing from North Yakima in 1892, Milburn G. Wills recalls the 1855 volunteer campaign that broke the Yakama resistance — the forced marches, the starving commands, the men shot beside him, and the trophy he carried home.
- The Railroad Beats the Steamboat on Puget Sound
Olympia’s favorite steamer Bailey Gatzert makes its last run as Northern Pacific trains drain the passenger trade.
- The $10 Million Dream to Turn Olympia Into the Hub of the Northwest
J. R. Chaplin pitched a grand Olympia Improvement Company and a ship canal from Black Lake through the Chehalis to Grays Harbor—enough, he promised, to leave Seattle, Tacoma and Portland behind.
- A Century After Captain Gray: Grays Harbor Plans a Grand Celebration
Towns across Grays Harbor prepare a two-day centennial with a clam bake, steamer excursions, and railroad trips to mark the 1792 discovery of the harbor.
- Two Miles Perched on the Lower Circle of a Rainbow
A Shelton legislator's private letter describing a steamer passage up Hammersley's Inlet becomes the best prose in the paper — a circle of prismatic color, starfish, glaciers and one awestruck captain.
- Jim Hill Finally Names Everett as the Sound Terminus
A contract to build the Great Northern from Everett to Stevens Pass promises 3,000 jobs and a transcontinental line — if the tunnel and the promises hold.
- 130 Waterfront Owners, and Nobody Knows Where Their Land Is
A boom-era plat, a harbor replatted by the state without regard to it, and a tide land commission trying to untangle the mess at Whatcom before the courts get it.
- The Worst Storm on the Sound: A Train Wreck, a Drifting Ship, and Dead Wires
A landslide derails a Northern Pacific freight near Castle Rock, a British ship is blown across Tacoma bay, and the telegraph goes dead from Seattle south.
- The Settler Who Watched Olympia Get Claimed
R. C. Smith, who crossed the plains in 1848, recalls the canoe landing where Edmund Sylvester took the claim that became Olympia.
- Rainier’s Shingle Boom and the Road Olympia Forgot
A Rainier correspondent reports new shingle mills and warns that Olympia merchants are losing rural trade to Tacoma by ignoring the roads that feed the city.
- The $275,000 Plan to Dredge Olympia Into a Deep-Water Port
In 1892, a federal engineer proposed cutting a 12-foot channel through two miles of tide flats so ocean steamers could reach Fourth Street. The price tag was $275,000—and a bet on Olympia’s future.
- Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.