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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 18 |
| 1892 | 16 |
34 stories matching train
- Armed Robbers Hit the Kitsap Pacific Train at Shelton
Two men boarded the morning train at Shelton, broke into the express car, and held up the messenger and a passenger, making off with money and jewelry.
- A Storm Cuts the Northern Pacific and Strands the Capital
A weekend storm washes out the Northern Pacific, cuts telegraph lines, and leaves travelers—and would-be supreme court attorneys—stuck between Tacoma, Olympia and Montesano.
- The Train That Didn't Whistle
A Seattle teamster loses a leg at a blind railroad crossing, and the Washington Supreme Court weighs whether his failure to stop and listen bars his claim against the Northern Pacific.
- A Logging Train, a Fallen Tree, and Two Deaths in the Dark
On the Washington Southern's first run near Shelton, a tree bridging a sand cut killed a brakeman and a tender man before the engine could stop. The town mourned two young workers.
- Separated at Three, Reunited at Sixty on a Centralia Train Platform
A famous Boston preacher changing trains in Centralia asks a stranger his name — and finds the brother his family had not heard from in more than fifty years.
- The Railroad Baron Who Refused to Compete With Shadows
Northern Pacific president Tom Oakes tells Seattle that Jim Hill’s Great Northern is more phantom than threat—and explains why cutting timber rates could backfire on Puget Sound’s lumbermen.
- The Feather-Pillow Pregnancy That Fooled Centralia
A couple's plea for train fare ends with the town out the money and both travelers gone.
- The Railroad Comes Collecting: Olympia's Subsidy Fight Heads to Court
Northern Pacific's own attorney admits the line into Olympia cost the company $40,000 more than it took in — and announces he will sue every citizen who signed the bond anyway.
- Six Hours Stranded in Gate City: When the Railroad Made Portland Closer Than Tacoma
A new Northern Pacific timetable leaves Grays Harbor travelers — and Olympians — fuming, forcing a six-hour wait at Gate City and making far-off Portland a faster trip than nearby Tacoma.
- They Put Their Houses on Wagons: How the Railroad Killed One Yakima and Made Another
The Northern Pacific wins its Supreme Court fight over a depot too late — Yakima City's residents have already hauled their buildings across the sagebrush to North Yakima.
- The Cowcatcher Lifted Her Into the Air, and Then They Took Her Home
An elderly Native woman walking the Northern Pacific tracks below town is swept up by the overland express — and walks away from it, carried off by her mother and son.
- Jim Hill Looks at Olympia and Decides There Isn't Enough Money In It
The Great Northern will bypass the capital on its Seattle–Tacoma–Portland line, leaving the field to the Northern Pacific — a blunt verdict on the city's prospects from the era's great railroad builder.
- The Night the Wind Shook Olympia
A gale worse than any since 1882 tore through Olympia, sinking the steamer Colby at Horr's dock, blocking the Northern Pacific, and bringing trees down across the city.
- 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.
- Olympia Selects Design for New High School
The school board settles on a design by architect B.F.M. Weeks, sparking a debate over whether to build in brick or Tenino stone.
- Bypassed by the Railroad, Olympia Grabbed a Shovel
When the Northern Pacific chose Tacoma, Olympia’s citizens turned Thursdays into railroad-building days—then remade their town as a bustling capital of 8,500.
- The Eastern Oregon After the Fire
A board of survey finds the burned steamer's machinery ruined and its safe intact, while the crew buries the ship's cook.
- 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.
- Bankers May Take Over Washington’s Republican Convention
On the eve of the state convention in Seattle, a Tribune correspondent warns that a “ring” of bankers could choose the delegates—and leave farmers and Grand Army veterans out in the cold.
- John L. Sullivan Comes to Olympia, and the City Council Adjourns for the Show
The heavyweight champion and the Pacific Coast’s great theatrical manager packed the Olympia Theater, traded jokes about brick opera houses, and drew the mayor and nearly every councilman into the audience.
- 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.
- 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.
- The westernmost town in America bets its future on a telegraph wire
Ocosta-by-the-Sea, on Grays Harbor, is wired to the world and promoters promise a seaside metropolis — cottages, plank roads, a clam bake and a coming railroad.
- Twelve Puget Sound Steamships Ground to a Halt as Engineers and Pilots Dig In
A bare-knuckle jurisdictional feud between the Marine Engineers' Association and the Brotherhood of Pilots leaves the Sound's biggest passenger boats idle and 300 men out of work.
- A Sawmill Owner's Terrible Day: The Buzz Saw That Took a Leg and Nearly Two
James P. Allison was cutting logs at Clear Lake when a cant hook threw him into the teeth of an immense saw. Doctors were summoned from Olympia, Centralia and Bucoda, but the injured man waited hours for relief.