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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 8 |
21 stories matching packer
- The Pioneer Shingle-Packer of Snohomish County
A young woman who made waves in the male-dominated world of shingle mills at Getchell has moved on to a new role as a teacher.
- Lummi Fishermen Fight for Their Reefs
Prominent Lummi leaders seek an injunction against salmon canning companies to protect their traditional fishing grounds from industrial traps.
- The Land That Wasn't: How Washington’s First Supreme Court Ruled on Who Owns the River
In a landmark 1891 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court settled a fierce dispute over Puget Sound real estate, declaring that private property lines stop where the tide begins.
- The Salmon Came Late: Freshets Held the Columbia Run at the River's Mouth Until It Was Nearly Too Late
Ilwaco packer B. A. Seaborg says the fish only began running two weeks ago — and the August 10 close season will shut the nets on thousands of them.
- The Waterfront Collapse
McNaught's wharf at the foot of Virginia Street crumbles into the bay, destroying a warehouse and a local fish packer's livelihood.
- Aberdeen Fishermen Hold the Line for a Better Price
The fishermen's union signs for 4 cents a pound—nearly triple the buyers' opening offer—and vows to stay with the contract as packers try to undercut it.
- The Solitary End of a Prospector
A prospector returning from the gold fields is found frozen to death in the Cascade mountains, a grim reminder of the perils facing those seeking their fortunes in the wild.
- The Fight for Point Roberts’ Shoreline
A powerful fishing association is accused of manipulating land filings to secure a monopoly on the valuable tide lands, pushing out local competitors.
- Labor Day at Madison Park—and a Boycott Aimed at Minneapolis
Seattle union delegates planned a citywide Labor Day celebration and answered a flour-mill wage cut in Minneapolis with a boycott.
- The High Price of Bacon
A local packing manager pushes back against rumors that Seattle’s market is driving up the cost of smoked meats.
- Wild Goose Bill Meets His End in a Cattle Dispute
The famed Big Bend pioneer and his assailant both die in a shootout at Condon's Ferry, twelve miles north of Wilbur.
- A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish
A federal injunction stops the Point Roberts packing company from taking sockeye while the cannery argues the reef was never reserved to the Lummi—and that 130 jobs hang in the balance.
- Fireboat Battles Blazing Mill on the Tide Flats
McMaster's shingle mill, a sprawling wharf-side structure, is lost to a massive fire as the city's fireboat struggles to maneuver through a congested waterway.
- The Naturalist Sent to Trap the Olympics' Unknown Animals
A government field agent bound for Hoodsport planned to collect elk, bears, marmots and mountain beavers—and maybe discover a rodent scientists had never named.
- The Salmon Strike That Moved an Industry: How Columbia River Fishermen’s Union Priced Themselves Out of Business
In February 1898, a Chicago buyer predicted that the fishermen's demand for higher wages would force salmon canneries to abandon the Columbia River for Alaska—a prediction that came true within a decade.
- The Great Columbia Salmon Run Was Dying — and Oregon and Washington Couldn't Agree Who Should Save It
In 1894 a Portland memorial to Congress warned that the Chinook were vanishing: a $31.5 million trade, thousands of jobs, and a two-state turf war over who got to regulate the river.
- The Engineer Who Found Stevens Pass Drowned in the Columbia
C.F.B. Haskell, who carved the pass’s name on a tree for his boss, was caught in a whirlpool with W.A. Barton and Mrs. Powell. Wenatchee went into mourning.
- Wild Goose Bill: The Frontier Ferryman Who Kept a Free Boat for the Poor
A Washington paper remembers W. H. Condon, a 68-year-old pioneer whose free Columbia River ferry, homemade roads and violent past made him a local legend.
- Six Men Climbed a Smoking Rainier in Midwinter
When Mount Rainier seemed to erupt in 1894, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sent Maj. E. S. Ingraham and five companions up the Carbon River in deep winter to find out what was really happening.
- The Great Front Street Fraud: City Council Exposes Fake Petition for Cable Car
In a stunning display of civic integrity, Seattle’s Common Council unmasks a fraudulent petition designed to grant a monopoly cable car franchise, revealing that applicants forged signatures and misrepresented property frontage.
- A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking
In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.