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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 5 |
15 stories matching pan
- The Hard Pan Tax Dispute
A small-town legal battle in Anacortes reveals how railroad companies and local governments clashed over the definition of 'rock' to dodge municipal assessments.
- Gold Fever Hits the Sound
As residents of Tacoma and Port Townsend scramble to stake claims in city streets, the sudden discovery of gold in urban gravel pits sparks a brief, chaotic rush.
- 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 Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- Industrial Accident on the Tide Flats
A laborer survives a collapse on a pile driver working on the Seattle tide flats.
- The Salvation Army's Mission of Mercy
Facing mounting poverty in 1893, the local Salvation Army opens a dining room for the city’s destitute, planning a woodyard to trade labor for meals.
- The Pugilist Who Panned the Performance
When legendary heavyweight John L. Sullivan took a turn on the Seattle stage, his performance was less 'histrionic' than 'fighting drunk.'
- The Corpse in Titchenal's Canyon
A grisly discovery in the Washington wilderness leaves authorities searching for answers about a traveler who never made it to Kansas City.
- The Silent Battle of the Salmon Spawning Grounds
An early eyewitness account of the Columbia River’s delicate ecosystem and the struggle to protect a vanishing resource from industrial overfishing.
- The School Land That Was Salted With Gold
Washington's attorney general told the Interior Department that a claimant had planted jeweler's gold in gravel from a Pierce County school section to turn public land into a mine.
- The Wagon King Tells Seattle to Build Roads and Put Idle Men to Work
Clem Studebaker, visiting from South Bend, says Puget Sound is beautiful but backward: good roads, an army-built highway system, and the Nicaragua canal would cure unemployment.
- A Pigeon Flew 100 Miles to Report From Mount Rainier
A carrier pigeon from the Starlee-Meeker expedition delivers dispatches, tall trees, trout, and one very sleepy doctor.
- The Gold That Wasn't There: How Speculators Tried to Mine Their Way Into a Public School Section
A Tacoma hardware merchant swore a state school tract was rich placer ground. The state bored over a thousand feet of shafting, found less than a cent of gold per yard, and still had to fight to keep its own land.
- The Clay Under Seattle Built a Million-Dollar Industry
King County clay works turned local deposits into firebrick, paving brick, sewer pipe and architectural terra cotta—winning federal tests and employing hundreds of men.
- Seattle’s Post-Panic Pep Talk: Canals, Steel and Paved Streets
On New Year’s Day 1895, Seattle’s mayor and aldermen promised economy, railroad terminals and a Lake Washington canal—and insisted the Panic of 1893 was finally fading.