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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1899 | 20 |
20 stories matching except
- The Day an Indian Survived a Waterfall Leap
Mitchell Potera, a Shawnee man from Waunette, Washington, jumped off Steilacoom Falls to escape his pursuers—and walked away with only scratches.
- The Great Oil Puzzle: How Three Men Solved an Impossible Measure
A local grocer and two farmers spent a long afternoon cracking a mathematical riddle to split eight gallons of oil evenly using only three uneven containers.
- The Canal That Could Save the West: How a New Waterway Would End Seattle’s Shipping Nightmare
As the Panama Canal project gains momentum, local experts calculate that Pacific Northwest farmers are losing millions annually due to the prohibitive costs of shipping grain around Cape Horn.
- The Birth of the Seattle Stock Exchange
Promoters establish a new financial hub on the corner of First and Spring, promising a 'pure' exchange for the benefit of the city rather than the few.
- The Streetcar Stranglehold: Eastern Capitalists vs. Seattle’s Future
As a coalition of wealthy investors from the East seeks to monopolize Seattle’s street railway system with a 18-year franchise, local legal advisors warn that without it, the deal collapses—igniting a fierce debate over municipal ownership and corporate power.
- The Great Timber Truce: Tacoma Mills Shut Down for a Week to Save Prices
In a rare display of unity, Tacoma’s logging camps and sawmills have agreed to a seven-day shutdown. While workers face temporary unemployment, the industry claims this 'paradoxical' move is the only way to prevent lumber prices from collapsing.
- The Church Fair Scandal: When Seattle’s Clergy Played Prank on a Congregation
A reverend and his colleagues turned a charity fundraiser into an elaborate joke, dressing two women in 'shabbily' clothes to perform a 'Irish spectacle'—only for the punchline to backfire spectacularly.
- The Quarantine of Tacoma: When a Hotel Became a Prison for Railroad Workers
In April 1898, a single case of smallpox in a Tacoma hotel triggered a massive quarantine that stranded dozens of railroad employees and paralyzed the city's transit network.
- The Moonshiner’s Crusade: A Local Man Offers to Lead a Private Army Against the Spanish
Arthur T. Abernethy, a Seattle resident with deep ties to Southern Appalachia, has proposed an audacious plan to President McKinley: recruit fierce moonshiners from North Carolina and Tennessee to crush the rebellion in the Philippines.
- The Policeman, the Whiskey, and the Sober Pigeons
A Seattle officer's attempt to trap church-dwelling pigeons using liquor-soaked corn ended in a hilariously humiliating failure when the birds refused to lose their composure.
- The Mayor’s Gambit: Humes Defers to Council as Seattle Sweeps Away Its Gambling dens
In a rare moment of unified reform, the City Council has ordered the closure of all gambling houses and restricted saloons in the business district. Mayor Humes, citing legal ambiguity over the saloon ordinance but promising strict enforcement against lotteries, leaves the fate of Seattle’s vice industry to the police chief.
- The Rent Trap: Why Seattle's Business District Is Running Out of Room
As the city booms post-fire, merchants find themselves priced out of First Avenue, forced to migrate up Third and beyond in a desperate search for affordable space.
- The Brick and the Ballot: Wenatchee’s Fight for County Status
As the legislature carves out a new county from Chelan and Kittitas territories, local developers donate a brick courthouse to secure the seat of power in a town on the rise.
- The Weatherman’s Excuse: 'We Have No Stations on the Ocean'
Seattle's official meteorologist defends his inaccurate forecasts by blaming the lack of coastal observation posts and the unpredictable nature of Pacific storms.
- The Power Struggle for Seattle’s Future
As the city council investigates the Cedar River water rights dispute, a fierce corporate war erupts between the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company and the Union Electric Company, threatening to monopolize the region's energy supply.
- The Gold Rush That Wasn't: Copper River’s ‘Sickness’ and the Lie of the Trail
A prospector returns from the Copper River country with a chilling warning: the gold is gone, the camps are sick, and the 'passage' to new fields is a myth.
- The Great Puma Panic: How a Loose Cat and a Lucky Dog Sparked Chaos at Leschi Park
In the early days of Seattle's municipal parks, a puma escaped its cage, chased a terrier into a bear pit, and nearly cost the zookeeper his bones in a brawl that read like a cartoon.
- The Great Odd Fellows Sleep-In: A Night of Fractured Rituals in Seattle
When the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows convened in June 1909, a bizarre mix of procedural delays and social distractions turned a solemn ceremony into a chaotic spectacle that spilled onto the dance floor.
- The Iron Fist of Labor: Seattle’s Unions Unite to Control the City
A comprehensive look at the Western Central Labor Union and its affiliated trades—bricklayers, carpenters, and iron workers—who have effectively monopolized construction in Seattle.
- The Seattle Star’s Local Beat: A Robber’s $20, a Funeral, and the Yellow Peril Panic
While New York burns in wire copy, Seattle deals with petty theft, local funerals, and a debunked rumor of an Alaskan battle.