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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1907 | 2 |
| 1908 | 20 |
| 1909 | 29 |
| 1910 | 13 |
64 stories matching act
- "An Act of Providence": State Clears the Great Northern for the Wellington Dead
After a joint inquiry with the coroner's jury into the Wellington disaster, the state railroad commission finds the train crew did everything reasonable and calls the catastrophe an act of God — then quietly asks engineers to study the grade.
- 321,000 Acres Near Yakima Thrown Open to Settlers
The Interior Department restores a huge block of North Yakima district land to the public domain, with settlement allowed after November 9 and entry after December 9.
- The Federal Government Begins Land Allotments for the Calispel Tribe
Clair Hunt arrives in the Calispel Valley to begin the process of partitioning land for the Calispel people, a move following a special act of Congress.
- A Saloon Fight, a Fine, and a Wage Suit in Old Town
A former musical director at Conquest Saloon sues Jack Furness for back pay, but Furness says he deducted the amount of a fine he paid after the musician's altercation with a customer.
- A Land-Fraud Prosecutor Warns the Homestead Loophole Is Closing
Fresh from prosecuting land fraud, F. M. Goodwin opens a Spokane law office and predicts Congress will tighten the Timber and Stone Act and the homestead commutation loophole.
- The Attorney General Says Near-Beer Is Still Beer
Ruling on a Lewis County saloon closes the loophole that let 'temperance' drinks flow in dry towns: if it has any alcohol in it and you drink it, Olympia says it's liquor.
- The Railroad That Decided It Did Not Have to Obey the State
Great Northern built a $20,000 depot at Odessa as a gift to a friendly town — while flatly ignoring orders from the Washington Railroad Commission. Now the commission says it will prosecute.
- The Federal Land Freeze on the Pend Oreille
A sudden government order halts settlement along 30 miles of the Pend Oreille River, leaving homesteaders in limbo as a major power company eyes the region's massive hydroelectric potential.
- Ione's Editor Wants Stevens County Split — and Newport Can Have the Temporary Seat
As the Pend Oreille valley booms on the new I. & W. N. railroad, the Ione Record argues the east side deserves its own county, with a scrap to the finish over where the courthouse finally lands.
- A Spokane Judge Blows Smoke Through Washington’s Cigarette Ban
The state’s new cigarette prohibition was unconstitutional, Judge Sullivan ruled, because a law titled as regulation could not impose outright prohibition.
- The Government Wants the Timber Back: 24 Homesteaders Fight for Their Claims
A federal commissioner opens a day-by-day docket against settlers in the LeClerc Creek basin whose land was folded into the Priest River National Forest two years after they proved up on it.
- Seventeen Citizens Pick an Entire City Ticket
Two caucuses, seventeen voters and a third ballot to break a tie: Newport's parties choose their men for council and treasurer in a campaign almost nobody seems to care about.
- The 1909 Legislature Went Home With a $10 Million Tab and an Unfinished Scandal
Washington's eleventh session adjourned with record spending, a sweeping new criminal code, a local-option liquor law, an equal-suffrage referendum — and an insurance investigation the House only agreed to after the acting governor threatened to drag them back.
- Federal Control Tightens Over Indian Land Income
A new government order mandates that lease money from Indigenous lands be held in restricted accounts, limiting how landowners can access their own funds.
- 3,000 Acres of Reservation Land Pulled Off the Market — for a Town
The Secretary of the Interior withdraws nearly 3,000 acres at the meeting of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers, deciding farmland is not the best use for ground inside the Colville Indian Reservation.
- One Thousand Parcels, One Deadline: the County Races the Clock on Tax-Title Land
A new state law gave landowners exactly one year to challenge old tax foreclosures. On the day it expired, the suits landed in the Stevens County courthouse all at once.
- A $125 Doctorate: Bellingham's Normal School Principal on Trial
Sixteen charges — misapplied funds, incompetence and a mail-order Ph.D. — land the best-known educator in the Northwest before a governor-ordered hearing.
- The Governor Died Two Days After Taking to His Room — and Never Said Goodbye
Samuel G. Cosgrove, elected to lead Washington in November, died of Bright's disease at a California sanitarium. Olympia draped the capitol in crape, called out the National Guard, and swore in his lieutenant governor before the funeral was over.
- Railroad Operator Arrested for Money Order Forgery
After stealing blank money orders from the Western Express Co. in Usk, a railroad operator was apprehended in a Newport saloon.
- The Justice of the Peace Who Sent Men to the Chain Gang Takes His Turn in It
Former Newport Justice of the Peace Warriner, a fugitive after the grand jury and district court got through with him, is caught by a deputy sheriff and hauled off to serve 150 days at hard labor — ball, chain and a smile.
- A Father’s Ax, a Lodged Tree, and a Boy’s Death in the Woods
Seventeen-year-old Charles H. Day was killed near Chewelah while cutting railroad ties with his father when an ax glanced off a lodged tree and severed an artery behind his knee.
- The Hook Slipped: A Scaler Killed Two Miles From Newport
James Wall, 50, was loading logs for the Panhandle Lumber Co. when a heavy log fell and fractured his skull. He lived only five minutes.
- The Valley Wants Out: East Stevens County Pushes to Split From Colville
Fed up with distant county government, Newport and Ione business leaders organize to carve a new county out of eastern Stevens County — and they're willing to let Newport hold the temporary courthouse, for now.
- The Fight for the Pend Oreille River
A local congressman intervenes to prevent a federal shutdown of river improvements, sparking a debate over land rights and conservation.
- The I.W.W. Prisoner Scandal at Fort George Wright
A military commander is suspended after local officials bypassed the chain of command to house Industrial Workers of the World prisoners at a Spokane fort.