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|---|---|
| 1864 | 1 |
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82 stories matching basin
- The Price of Living in the Desert
A scathing editorial calls out the discriminatory rail rates that forced Columbia Basin farmers to subsidize Puget Sound middlemen.
- The Perils of 'Fantastic' Street Engineering
Complaints emerge regarding city contractors creating basins and trenches that trap water, creating eyesores and potential health hazards.
- The Ghost Mine of Tietan Basin
For twenty-three years, Judge Nelson has hunted the secret silver ledge revealed by an Indigenous man, but the secret died with him.
- When Seattle Was Coal Country
A detailed 1895 survey shows King County leading Washington's coal output, with Seattle shipping fuel to California, Oregon, and the Midwest—while labor troubles and spontaneous mine fires shadowed the boom.
- The Deadly Plumbing of American Hotels
A leading medical journal warns travelers that the sanitary conditions in American and Canadian hotels are putting lives at risk.
- The Waterfall That Broke the Poets: Snoqualmie’s Majestic Leap
A special correspondent describes the Snoqualmie Falls not as a mere tourist stop, but as a 'noble and striking natural wonder' that defies language, offering a glimpse into the rugged beauty of Washington Territory in 1888.
- The Iron Giant Lands: Moss Bay Steel Chooses Seattle Without Asking for a Penny
In a stunning victory for civic pride over corporate bribery, the massive Moss Bay Iron and Steel Company has selected Lake Washington as its site, rejecting lucrative bonuses from rival cities and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- The Panhandle's Longing: A Century-Old Border Dispute
Before Washington became a state, Northern Idahoans fought for annexation, citing mountain barriers and shared economic interests with the Columbia River basin.
- Gunfight in the Teanaway Basin
A sheriff's posse ambushes suspected bank robbers in the Cascades, sparking a mountain manhunt.
- The Bitter Battle for the Yakima Depot
A railroad official defends the controversial move of the townsite to North Yakima, dismissing long-standing charges of corruption and 'outrage'.
- The Columbia River Finally Opens to Navigation
Steamers Teal and Empire meet in the new waterway basin, signaling a new era for Kennewick trade.
- The Million-Dollar Blueprint for a Desert Oasis
Engineers unveil an ambitious 'Natchees' canal route designed to transform 100,000 acres of arid sagebrush into a fruit-growing paradise.
- Farmers Petition to Reshape the Duwamish Basin
Facing constant flooding and ruin, regional farmers unite to demand a massive engineering project to redirect the Cedar River and deepen the waterways of Seattle.
- The Desert to Bloom: Federal Engineers Back Massive Irrigation Plan
A definitive federal study deems the Columbia Basin project physically and economically sound, signaling a potential turn in the state’s agricultural future.
- How Everett Got Its Harbor Money—by Telegrams and Western Nerve
A seven-month lobbying campaign, a reluctant War Department and a $10,000 dredging appropriation: inside the fight to make Everett a deep-water port.
- 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 Doctor and the Frog
When a woman believed she had swallowed a frog, a Seattle physician orchestrated a surgical hoax to save her peace of mind.
- Chasing the Phantom Falls: A Lost Expedition to the Cedar River
In 1885, two explorers ventured deep into the rugged wilderness above Cedar River to document the elusive, towering waterfalls known only to local legend.
- Discovery of a Hidden Crater Lake
Two hunters stumble upon a mysterious, glacier-fed lake deep in the Olympic Mountains.
- Olympia's Fresh-Water Harbor Dream, Before Seattle's Ship Canal
In 1892, as Northern Pacific lobbyists pushed a Lake Washington ship canal for Seattle, Olympia argued it already had a cheaper place for a sheltered fresh-water basin—between Third Street and Tumwater.
- The Alarm Bells of North Seattle
A look at the logistical challenges of firefighting in 1885 Seattle, where volunteer companies managed city safety via university and church bells.
- The Myth of the Sterile Sound
A Victorian-era editorial refutes the popular belief that the Snohomish Valley and surrounding lands were unfit for farming, arguing that geological history created a landscape ripe for immense agricultural prosperity.
- Posse Tracks Roslyn Bank Robbers Into Oregon
A brazen daylight bank robbery leaves the town in terror and launches a high-stakes manhunt across Oregon and Washington.
- The Industrial Remaking of Everett's Waterfront
Federal authorities grant permission for a massive engineering project to wall off the Snohomish River delta, transforming a shallow tidal area into a deep-water harbor for industrial commerce.
- The 15,000-Word Plan to Build a Great Harbor on Seattle's Tide Flats
Virgil Bogue's report to King County proposes dredged slips, public docks, a union station and a jointly owned terminal railroad—if Seattle can sort out its tide-land titles.
Also about this, in other words
- An Artesian Spring Found Under the Occidental Block
Drilling beneath the heart of Seattle's business district reveals a massive, flowing water source.
- The Desert Beckons: The Fight to Irrigate Benton County
Highland Improvement and Commercial Clubs launch an ambitious campaign to finally secure irrigation rights for the long-promised Benton Unit.
- The Struggle for Irrigation in White Bluffs
A government reclamation expert visits the Yakima Valley, sparking hope for a long-sought gravity ditch project.
- The Miracle at Moxee: Water Strikes the High Ground
A homemade rotary drill finds artesian water where experts feared it was impossible, turning arid desert into potential farmland.
- Ballard’s Water Works War
A bitter civic argument erupts in the Ballard city council over where to sink artesian wells, ending in a resignation.
- Seeking Federal Aid for the Sunnyside Canal Extension
Senator Miles Poindexter tours the Kennewick valley as local leaders lobby for a federal survey to irrigate 40,000 acres of land between Kiona and Hover.
- Turning the Desert Into an Empire
A massive engineering project is underway to irrigate 125,000 acres of Yakima bench land, fueling the local boosterism of the 1890s.
- The Irrigation Revolution: Transforming the Arid Desert
A detailed report on how massive irrigation canals and experimental artesian wells are turning the Yakima Valley into an agricultural powerhouse.