Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1897 | 5 |
| 1898 | 10 |
15 stories matching common
- The Great Soil Debate of 1897
A Washington agricultural expert challenges the common practice of summer-fallowing, warning that the method is depleting the state's soil nitrogen and threatening long-term fertility.
- The Butter Fraud Crackdown
State officials threaten public exposure for wholesalers passing off cheap eastern butter as premium Washington creamery product.
- The Selah Rattlesnake Hunters Who Shipped Their Catch to China
A Yakima Valley farm employed Chinese laborers to catch rattlesnakes alive, jar them in whisky, and export them for a profit—an odd, dangerous trade recorded through the racist language of the era.
- The High Cost of Neglected Apiaries
A local beekeeping expert warns that failing to clear weeds from hive entrances is costing regional producers significant honey yields.
- The Palouse Wheat Boom Was a Gold Mine—Until the Debt Came Due
An agricultural professor traces the Palouse’s speculative wheat economy: inflated land purchases, the rain-ruined crop of 1893, the panic that followed, and the sudden recovery by 1897.
- Six Mowers in the Alfalfa: Inside the Northwest's Largest Irrigated Ranch
The superintendent of the Moxee Company's farm walks a reporter through 680 acres of alfalfa, 180 of barley and a hop yard rented out for a quarter of the bale — and explains why California-style hay stacking won't do for Yakima Valley stockmen.
- Judge Hanford Draws the Line: Sheep Can't Graze on Railroad Land Without Consent
A federal court ruling in Yakima County upholds the Northern Pacific Railway's right to protect its unenclosed lands from sheep, setting a precedent for property rights and land use in the West.
- The Farmers' Grange Declares War on the Mortgage System
Washington's State Grange master lays out a platform against credit, monopolies and 'exorbitant per cent profits' — while insisting the order is not political.
- The 'Deviled Butter' Scandal That Cost Washington Dairies $19,000
A Pennsylvania ruling against rebranded 'renovated' butter prompts Washington dairy men to demand honest labeling for a cheap industrial substitute flooding Seattle markets.
- The Sugar War: Why Yakima Farmers Wanted Hawaii's Sweet Deal Axed
Northern Pacific distributed beet seed in North Yakima to test sugar production, but farmers argued they couldn't compete with Hawaiian sugar grown with cheap labor.
- The Valley That Organized Itself: Nooksack Farmers Build a Co-op and Demand Pure Food
At a December meeting in Deming, farmers from the Upper Nooksack and Sumas Valley formed a permanent association, secured a power separator for 200 cows, and called for a pure food law to stop the adulteration of fruit jams.
- The Tumbleweed That Threatened Washington's Wheat
In 1898, a state agricultural professor traced an invasive Russian thistle to railway yards and warned that Yakima County was already infested.
- A Fruit Grower's Pitch: Stop Sending Cash East — Feed Alaska Instead
Before the Northwest Fruitgrower's Association, S. L. Moore argued that Washington farmers should diversify beyond wheat and prunes, supply Alaska and Western markets, and let the Northern Pacific's traveling fruit exhibit lure settlers west.
- The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels
Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.
- The 1898 Sales Pitch That Called the San Juan Islands a 'Klondike at Home'
A judge's promotional essay promised apples, prunes, sheep, fish, limestone and health in Washington's island county—and complained that the outside world had not yet noticed.