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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 10 |
| 1877 | 12 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 17 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 8 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 8 |
| 1890 | 1 |
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117 stories matching blake
- The Mystery of the Mast
Two Seattle brothers discover a man adrift off Blakely Rocks with a bullet in his forehead, sparking a murder investigation in a quiet maritime town.
- The Cold Truth at City Hall
A winter coal shortage brings a parade of desperate applicants to a city official who doles out fuel with a mix of bureaucratic cruelty and casual dismissals.
- The Shipyard Walkout at the Port Blakely Mill
When an employer mandated a ten-hour workday, laborers staged a strike that pitted the mill's authority against the collective will of the workers.
- The Odd Fellows' Missing $144.15: A Treasurer's Fall From Grace
Henry A. Swift, a Fremont mill worker and lodge treasurer, is charged with embezzling $144.15 after a shutdown left his family in need.
- A Mill Owner's Warning: Free Trade and the Fight for Seattle's Lumber Future
Port Blakely's C. P. Holmes saw tariff-free lumber helping British Columbia, doubted the China-Japan war would rescue trade, and still believed Seattle's natural harbor would win.
- The Steam Tug That Sailed Like Clockwork
After a major refit to repair hurricane damage, the sturdy steam tug 'Sehome' proves its mettle on a high-speed run between Seattle and Port Blakely.
- The Tragedy at Port Blakely
A brutal killing on the bridge at Port Blakely sparks an investigation into the violence and instability fueled by alcohol access.
- The Charity Case Who Came Back a Brutal Husband
Port Blakely mill hands passed the hat for a crippled co-worker and sent him home to Kentucky. He came back married — and the town's justice of the peace had to take his wife away from him by night.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- The Fortress of Timber: How Mill Barons Bought the Land to Buy the Town
In 1877, a local editorial warned that Port Blakely’s massive timber companies were cornering the market on real estate, creating an economic monopoly that would stifle independent growth and keep workers dependent on their employers.
- The Body in the Hen House: An Unidentified Murder Near Eagle Harbor
A well-dressed stranger was found half-burned in an abandoned Kitsap County farmhouse, with only spectacles, a corkscrew, and a torn newspaper to say who he was.
- Two Deaths at Port Blakely, and a Killer's Surrender
A newly arrived blacksmith was shot in the back at the Port Blakely mill; a child was killed in the same attack, and the assailant gave himself up after days in the woods.
- The Mysterious Collapse of a Port Townsend Official
A former Customs official, clutching a frantic stack of papers detailing a feud with his superior, is found delirious and dying in a Chicago train station.
- The Perilous Crossing of the Sound
A young man attempted a midnight sailboat trip from Port Blakely to Seattle during a gale; now, only his empty boat remains.
- A $3 Million Sawmill Goes Corporate on Puget Sound
Port Blakely’s mill owners incorporated in California, putting a $3 million lumber empire under a manager who would run it from the Washington Territory shore.
- A Final Journey from the Mill
A three-year-old boy dies at Port Blakely, prompting a somber, community-led transit of his body to Seattle for burial.
- Death Reared Its Horrid Head: Steam Heater Explosion Kills Two Men in Downtown Seattle
A careless Japanese fireman left a boiler unattended at Second and Washington, causing a catastrophic explosion that killed one man instantly and mortally wounded another.
- The Siege of Port Blakely
When mill workers organized for better conditions at the Port Blakely mill, the company responded by calling in the National Guard, turning a labor dispute into a military occupation.
- From Embers to Empire: The Resilience of the Port Blakely Mill
When fire destroyed the massive Port Blakely sawmill in 1888, the company didn't just rebuild—they turned it into the largest, most productive operation on Puget Sound.
- A Body in the Bay, and Six Weeks of False Hope
Charles Londale vanished from his Port Blakely home. Six weeks later his body was pulled from the water—with no marks, no answers, and a family that refused to believe he had taken his own life.
- A Logger's Close Call
A Bainbridge Island logger survives a horrific accident after accidentally slicing his own wrist.
- A Captain's Fortune and the Daughters Who Couldn't Prove They Were Family
Washington's supreme court threw out a contest over the $500,000 estate of Port Blakely mill man William Renton because the claimants could not show they were adopted.
- A Shipboard Altercation at Port Blakely
A sailor is hospitalized with a broken leg following a mysterious scuffle in the forecastle of a ship docked at Port Blakely.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.
- The Rails of Mason County: An Industry Giant Plans a Deep-Woods Expansion
A representative of the Port Blakely Mill Company confirms plans to lay a standard-gauge steel railroad into the heart of Washington's timber country, setting the stage for industrial transformation.
Also about this, in other words
- A Diplomatic Salute in Fort Blakely
A French ship captain, confused by the celebratory shouting in a local harbor, fires a salute in honor of the wrong man.
- A Frontier 'Scraping Match' in Fort Blakely
A rough-and-tumble dispute between two citizens reveals the volatile nature of 1880s Puget Sound life.
- The Unlucky Mill Worker
A workplace accident at the Fort Blakely mill results in a serious injury for a local laborer.
- A Brutal Mill Accident at Port Blakely
A mill worker loses his foot to the saw, marking another dangerous day in the Puget Sound timber industry.
- A Journey to the Timber Powerhouse of Port Blakely
An eye-witness account of the massive industrial machinery and global trade routes operating just nine miles from Seattle in 1883.
- A Mill Worker's Narrow Escape
A standard day at the Port Blakeley mill turned catastrophic when a falling door triggered the log carriage, pinning a worker against the machinery.
- Inside the Mammoth Port Blakely Sawmill
A reporter visits the industrial powerhouse of Bainbridge Island, where steam-fed saws and massive shipments connect the Pacific Northwest to the world.
- Tragedy in a Young Block Bedroom
A young transfer driver ended his life while his twin brother slept just inches away.