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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 12 |
26 stories matching earliest
- The Dry Dock That Put Puget Sound on the Navy's Map
Senator Squire adds $75,000 to complete the Port Orchard dry dock, a strategic win for Pacific cruisers and a lasting boost for Puget Sound.
- The Precarious Wealth of a Marcus Bachelor
A wealthy settler in the Colville Valley suffers a public health scare, highlighting the risks of frontier isolation and the burden of managing an estate.
- The Hidden Hoard of Seattle's Pioneer Square
A rare coin discovery in 1888 offers a glimpse into the transient, globalized pockets of Seattle's earliest residents.
- The Fading Mineral Palace
Citizens petition to remove the aging, unsightly 'Mineral Palace' from Pioneer Place.
- Calls for a Ban on Immigration
A U.S. Senator proposes a sweeping one-year suspension of immigration, citing fears of disease and labor competition.
- The Pioneer’s Tale: A Life in the Early Puget Sound
Captain Henry Roeder, one of Whatcom County’s earliest settlers, recounts his journey from the California gold fields to establishing the region’s first sawmill.
- After the Great Fire, Seattle Faced a Crisis of Shelter
With the city center in ashes, temporary lodging became the most pressing demand for a bustling frontier town.
- The Canal Fund Creeps Toward Its Goal
Seattle’s Lake Washington waterway subsidy inches upward as a Northern Pacific Railroad lawyer promises Eastern capital will do its part.
- The Great Steamship Wars of Puget Sound
A fierce battle for transit supremacy erupts as railroad giants clash over the future of Seattle’s harbor trade.
- The Looming Water Crisis
A 1893 report warns that Seattle's pumping system is failing and proposes the Cedar River gravity system as the only way to meet the city's future needs.
- Bond Battle: King County Treasurer Resigns After Commissioners Reject His Surety
A.P. Mitten steps down after the board refuses his bond, declaring the office vacant—but not before a pointed exchange over legal instructions.
- Seattle Bet Everything on a Ship Canal—and the Clock Was Running Out
For forty years Seattle had dreamed of linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound. By April 1895, with nearly $50,000 raised in two days and the state preparing to sell the tide lands, the city faced a make-or-break moment.
- The Snowbound Expedition to Find a Cascade Pass
State road commissioners and a private party set out from Whatcom County to discover a practical route over the Baker Range, with three feet of snow already on the ground and no certainty a pass exists.
- Colonel Hart's Mining Rush: A Small Army Descends on the Methow Valley
With 85 men already at work and 400 more expected, Colonel Hart's mining operations in the Slate Creek district are bringing sudden prosperity—and a few bewildered settlers—to the Methow Valley.
- The Actress Who Became an Evangelist
At Seattle's United Presbyterian Church, Edith L. Peake recounted a life of books, unbelief and stage acting before a Moody and Sankey revival changed her course.
- A Variety Theatre, a Bundle of Testimonials, and the Preachers Who Wanted It Shut
Seattle's theatrical impresario John Considine fights for a Spokane theatre license against a gallery full of clergymen — and answers them with a who's-who of Seattle's leading names vouching for his honor.
- The State Germ Lab in the Burke Block
Seattle's new bacteriological laboratory tested city water, hunted typhoid and tried to make diphtheria antitoxin—while its doctors covered the rent.
- Seattle Tries to Halve Its Street-Light Bill
A council debate over arc versus incandescent lamps exposed ward rivalries and a fight over how much control the city should keep over a private lighting contract.
- A Missionary's Memory of the Russian Border
A Seattle Chamber of Commerce committee gathers testimony that the land north of Portland Canal was Russian, not British, as the Alaska boundary fight heats up.
- The Chamber Wants 500 Letters to Congress for a Nicaragua Canal
Seattle's Chamber of Commerce trustees endorse a coast-wide letter-writing campaign aimed at forcing a Senate vote on the Nicaragua canal before the middle of January.
- Council Moves to Vacate the Tide-Land Streets
With city streets and appraiser streets in conflict across the tide flats, the Chamber of Commerce pushes a joint resolution giving objectors ten days to protest before the council vacates the old plats.
- The Typo That Made Seattle the Most Taxed City in America
A comptroller's misplaced decimal turned a $1.36 tax rate into $12.60 in the World Almanac. By the time the Chamber of Commerce ran it down, Congress was quoting it — and Tacoma was begging the newspapers to stop trashing both cities.
- The Terminal Standoff: How Seattle’s Business Elite Forced a Railroad Compromise
In January 1899, the city’s Board of Trade and leading merchants intervened in a bitter dispute between the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad and the Puget Sound Shore Railroad, demanding the construction of vital terminal warehouses to save freight from the elements.
- Seattle’s Park Chief Wanted a Boulevard Before the Speculators Got There
In his 1894 annual report, Superintendent E. O. Schwagerl argued that Seattle needed a grand park-and-boulevard plan before rising land values and piecemeal growth closed the window.
- The Streetcar Combine That Built North Seattle
D. T. Denny and his sons bought control of the Consolidated Street Railway, merged it with the Third Street electric line, and set their sights on every route north of downtown.