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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 5 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 10 |
27 stories matching maximum
- Washington’s Constitution Takes Shape Amid Chaos
As Spokane Falls burns, the state’s constitutional delegates pivot from catastrophe to the fiery debate over regulating railroads and monopolies.
- Smuggling at the Railroad Tracks
A local man is held on charges for attempting to smuggle 32 Chinese immigrants via rail boxcar.
- The People vs. the Railroads: Olympia Debates a Rate Cap
While the Capitol fought off adjournment, a bill to cap passenger and freight rates reached the floor of the Washington House — with Populists demanding an up-or-down vote and railroad men asking for more time.
- A Railroad Rate Cut Redrew the Northwest's Trade Map
The Northern Pacific's new freight tariff aimed to make Puget Sound the gateway for Eastern Washington and Idaho—shutting out St. Paul and San Francisco.
- Cloudburst Wrecks Railroad Tracks in the Pilchuck Valley
A cloudburst washed out 100 yards of Lake Shore track at Machias and flooded the Pilchuck Valley.
- A Seattle Editor's Jail Sentence—and His Gallows Joke
C. H. Lugrin of the Telegram got three months and a $500 fine for criminal libel against Police Chief Bolton Rogers. He appealed—and joked that the judge couldn't hang him.
- The Pirate of Salmon Bay
A local captain confesses to scuttling his own schooner to collect insurance money, narrowly avoiding a death sentence due to a legal technicality.
- Engineers Complete Survey for Lake Washington Ship Canal
In 1891, engineers surveyed the path for a ship canal to connect Lake Washington to the Sound, envisioning a future where vessels could cleanse their hulls of barnacles in fresh water and double Seattle's commercial capacity.
- The Iron Road Rushes East
In 1892, railroad tycoon James J. Hill arrived in Spokane to finalize plans for a massive rail expansion that would forever link the Columbia River plateau to the transcontinental network.
- The Wife-Slasher Who Tried to Play Insane—and the Seattle Jury That Didn’t Buy It
McGee feigned madness so badly that the jury convicted him on the first ballot. A Steilacoom asylum doctor explained why three months of observation found no insanity—only a terrified wife.
- The Fight for Transparent Government
A Tacoma citizen challenges the centralization of power in Washington’s early governance, warning against the 'mercenary' influence of political rings and trusts.
- Three Miles a Day: The Great Northern Races the Snow to the Columbia
With tracklayers advancing west from Spokane and a tunnel still to be bored, John F. Stevens tells Seattle he needs men—and expects to connect the line by mid-November.
- The Tears of a Gambler
A notorious gambler facing prison time is denied a new trial and begs the court for mercy.
- Scarlet Fever Shut Seattle's Schools—Then the Board Cut Teachers' Pay
In May 1895 a health order ended the school year early. The same meeting slashed salaries, eliminated music and drawing, and triggered a board member's furious dissent.
- Seattle's Streetcar Franchise Fight: A City Council Asked to Extend a Struggling Railway's Lease
In 1896, the Seattle Consolidated Street Railway Company asked the city to extend its franchise to fifty years and share gross returns, arguing that a mandated paving bill would otherwise bankrupt the line.
- The Railroad Freight Fight That Nearly Forced a Special Session
Farmers and reformers pushed the Anderson railroad bill to a Senate showdown, while Gov. McGraw threatened to keep lawmakers in Olympia until freight rates came down.
- Farmers vs. the Railroads: The $3-a-Ton Fight in Olympia
At a legislative hearing, Washington's grain growers demand a cap on wheat freight rates — while Northern Pacific warns the bill will come straight out of its working men's wages.
- A Monorail on a 'Bicycle System': The 1892 Plan to Ride One Rail from Seattle to Tacoma
A company promised a thirty-mile elevated railway — cars balanced on a single steel rail, steadied by rubber wheels on an overhead guide — running across the tide flats and reaching Tacoma in forty minutes.
- Eight Dead, and the Steamboat Owners Owe Only $3,500
A federal judge in Seattle limits the Annie Faxon's liability after a Snake River boiler explosion, extending an old maritime rule to inland steamboats.
- Washington Asked Congress for $34,500 to Finish Carving Up the Colville Reservation
An 1894 dispatch from the capital details the surveying and allotment machinery behind opening the northern Colville Reservation to settlement — right down to the promise that the cost would be repaid 'from the proceeds of the lands when sold.'
- A Canal to Nowhere? Engineers Dismiss the Hood Canal Cut
A proposed channel from Hood Canal to North Bay would mean moving millions of cubic feet of glacial gravel—but a federal report finds too little farmland, commerce or ore to justify it.
- Puget Sound's Fishing Future, Blocked by Ice and Freight
A federal fisheries report praises the region's deep harbors and salmon runs, but explains why deep-sea halibut and cod fishing has failed to pay—and what it will take to change that.
- The University’s Wish List: New Departments, New Money
In 1895, UW regents asked King County legislators for laboratories, professors and a geological survey—and argued that the whole state would benefit.
- Twenty Inches of Snow Bring Seattle to a Standstill
A February 1893 blizzard blocks streetcars, freezes water pipes and threatens a coal famine, forcing schools to close and residents to melt snow for drinking water.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.