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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
19 stories matching barren
- The Desolation of the Arid Belt
A pioneer reflects on four decades in Washington and Idaho, warning that unchecked grazing and timber harvesting are turning fertile mountain valleys into sagebrush barrens.
- The Ghosting of Yakima City
When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed the original town of Yakima City, they didn't just move the station—they forced the entire town to uproot itself.
- The Campaign to Push Japanese Workers Out of Mukilteo
The 'All-American League' sends a petition to the Crown Lumber Company demanding the dismissal of immigrant workers.
- The Fight Against the 'Iron Grasp' of the Northern Pacific
Yakima County citizens gather to denounce the Northern Pacific Railroad's land hoarding and call for immediate federal forfeiture of unearned land grants.
- The Stockyards That Were Really About Raising the Value of Sand and Sagebrush
When Pasco promoters pushed stockyards at Ainsworth, Kennewick’s editor saw a railroad, a packer and owners of “practically worthless” land getting a public subsidy. He wanted no part of it.
- The Hard-Fought Birth of Washington's Constitution
Exhausted delegates in Olympia spend a grueling day debating the future of school lands, property rights, and the framework for a new state government.
- The Coming of the Dam
The federal government pulls three islands from public entry at Priest Rapids, clearing a major hurdle for a proposed mega-dam.
- The Rapid Rise of Ainsworth
A town that was nothing but sagebrush and coyotes four years ago is now a railroad terminus and a contender for the future state capital.
- The Unawakened Giant: Why Washington Territory Is the Next California
A sweeping editorial in the *Diligent Intelligencer* argues that railroads are about to unlock the 'inland basin' of Eastern Washington, transforming it from a feared desert into an agricultural empire rivaling the Golden State.
- The Meteorology of the Woods
An 1880 meteorologist argues that deforestation is responsible for the drying of rivers and the loss of rainfall, a warning from the early days of Washington Territory.
- Walla Walla’s 1884 Sales Pitch: From a Tent Store to a ‘Metropolitan’ City
A reprinted commercial sketch boasts of wheat, railroads, gasworks and thousands of souls — and lets slip the town’s whole origin story, from a tent on Mill Creek to the great fire of 1866.
- The Growing Pains of Yakima
Civic leaders push for a permanent, fire-safe courthouse to replace the aging, cramped wooden structure that no longer serves a booming frontier city.
- The Perils of Over-Irrigation
Federal experts warn that excessive water usage is turning productive land into barren salt marshes.
- Endicott's Russian Immigrants Defy Czarist Loyalty
Local Russian immigrants in Whitman County express solidarity with Japan, citing personal trauma under the Russian regime.
- Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets
In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.
- The First Washington Legislature: A Pioneer's Memory
A look back at the frontier days of 1854, when lawmakers traveled by rowboat to Olympia and held sessions in a modest frame building.
- The Territory Outlaws Oyster Poaching
A new statute aims to prevent the total depletion of local oyster beds by banning harvesting during the summer breeding season.
- Chasing the Mother Lode in the Cascades
A prospector shares his frustrated search for the source of placer gold in the northern Cascades.
- The City That Forgot Its Trees: Seattle’s Dusty Streets and the Missed Opportunity for Green
A year after citizens demanded shade trees, the city remains barren. An editorial warns that without immediate action, Seattle will remain a 'dry, dusty' settlement rather than a beautiful metropolis.
Also about this, in other words
- The Bachelor Plague: A Warning to Women Considering Washington Territory
A satirical column in the Waterville Empire warns Eastern women that the territory is overrun with 'horrid bachelors,' urging them to come anyway for the climate and soil.
- 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.
- A Frontier Promise Kept
In an era of rugged isolation, an anonymous immigrant couple reflects on twenty years of marriage, the silence of their home, and the sudden joy of a child arriving on Christmas Day.
- A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows
Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.
- The Unkindest Cut
A young boy's poignant question about inclusion and dignity sheds light on the treatment of people with disabilities in our community.
- A Heartbreak by the Snohomish River
A lonely local man is caught in a 'melancholy case' of unrequited love, spending his days watering a hitching post in a lovestruck daze.
- The Unlucky Bachelor of Seattle
A cautionary tale from the 1880s about the perils of marriage and the high-speed heartbreak of being a widower in a hurry.
- The Town's Bachelor Problem
An editorial tongue-lashing for four local men who chose independent living over marriage.