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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1883 | 63 |
| 1884 | 21 |
84 stories matching would
- The Great Clothing Fiasco
A group of citizens in Cheney ordered clothing from a traveling salesman, only to find the garments were comically undersized.
- A False Alarm Reveals Spokane Has No Fire Department
A burst of flame over Howard and Main sends a crowd running — and the paper demands a fire department before a real blaze eats the business district.
- The Perils of Courting in a Buggy
A livery stable customer recounts a disastrous date involving a runaway horse, a kiss, and a very narrow escape.
- A Watch Snatched on Howard Street, and a Call for a Real Jail
A late-night robbery in the alley by Rima's store prompts the paper to warn that the gold rush is importing 'tough citizens' faster than Spokane Falls can lock them up.
- The Train They Hoped Would Stop: Spokane's Bid for the Last-Spike Spotlight
A mass meeting at Cannon's Hall appointed a committee to welcome President Villard's Northern Pacific excursion and make sure the editorial train lingered long enough to see the falls.
- A Stage for the Falls: The Push for Spokane's First Great Opera House
With touring companies expected on the Northern Pacific, local boosters propose a 1,000-seat frame hall—and a joint-stock company to build it for $6,000.
- The Widow, the Mayor, and the Killing of William Three Mountains
After a Spokane chief was killed, his widow walked into Mayor Glover’s office to settle a five-year-old debt—a story the paper framed with the era’s racism.
- A Boulder on the Track Nearly Sends a Passenger Train Down the Hill
A westbound train strikes a fallen boulder near the Hangman Creek bridge, throwing its engine trucks off the track within feet of a steep drop. A nearby pay-car locomotive pulls the disabled engine free.
- Spokane Falls Council Tackles Charter, Cash, and a Dead Horse
In August 1883, the Spokane Falls City Council met to discuss a new city charter, unpaid bills, street assessments, and the problem of a dead horse. The meeting offers a glimpse into the challenges of a growing frontier town.
- A Brutal Attack on a Prisoner
An Indigenous man held in the Spokane jail is shot through the bars by an unknown assailant in a cowardly act of violence.
- The Correspondent Called Spokane Poor and Dull. The Local Paper Fired Back.
In 1883, a traveling writer dismissed Spokane Falls as a speculative boomtown with no real hinterland. The local press answered point by point, defending the mills, the grain trade and the city's future.
- The Ghost of Octavia
In a small cabin near Spokane, a widower finds comfort in a persistent, loving vision of his long-dead wife.
- Spokane Has No Fire Department — Just a Few Ladders and a Lot of Luck
After a string of chimney fires nearly take out whole blocks, the paper demands a bucket brigade before a real blaze wipes the city off the map.
- The Editor's Pistol: A Deadly Quarrel in Walla Walla
Chas. Besserer, editor of the Walla Walla Watchman, shoots a brewer who threatened him, and is acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
- A Petition Vanishes and the Fight to Carve Up Spokane County Turns Nasty
As Olympia weighs a bill to split off the new 'Sprague County,' Spokane Falls editors cry foul over a petition with 300 names that disappeared from an office — and defend a rival editor accused of inventing the theft.
- Spokane's Board of Trade Fights to Save the Northern Pacific Land Grant
In February 1884, Spokane Falls merchants rallied against a Congressional bill that would forfeit the railroad's land grant — and with it, they feared, the town's entire future.
- The Night Fire Nearly Took Browne's New Brick Block
A stove left burning in a plaster-drying room set Spokane Falls' finest new brick building alight — and the town had nothing but buckets to fight it with.
- A Violent Land Dispute on the Little Spokane
A settler’s attempt to harvest hay on his newly acquired land leads to an armed confrontation with local Indigenous claimants.
- Spokane Wins the Land Office
After a desperate struggle against rival towns, Spokane Falls secures the U.S. Land Office, cementing its status as the region's rising metropolis.
- The Cheney War Scare
A false alarm regarding an Indigenous uprising sends the town of Cheney into a panicked frenzy.
- The Gold Rush That Wouldn't Wait for Spring
A Spokane Falls merchant is summoned back to the snowbound Coeur d'Alene mines as fortune hunters pour in a month early — and the Falls positions itself as the gateway to the new El Dorado.
- A Miner's Pockets Full of Gold Nuggets — and a Placer Strike 40 Miles From Town
A Spokane Falls businessman bound for the Cœur d'Alene mines never got there, but came back with nuggets and gold-crusted quartz from a richer claim far nearer home.
- Robbed at the Depot: A Warning to Night Prowlers
A Chinese laborer for E. H. Bennett is set upon by two men near the railroad crossing and relieved of his wages — and the paper warns the robbers to be out at night no more.
- The Night the Jay Rial Company Insulted Spokane Falls
A packed house at Cannon's Hall got a mangled 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' — and the local critic did not hold back.
- No Monopoly on Gaslight: Spokane's Council Draws a Line
Council granted a gas company the right to lay pipes—but pointedly refused an exclusive franchise, warning that monopoly would 'cinch the consumers.'