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299 stories matching blue
- The Blue Glass Delusion
A local man's obsession with the 'blue glass' health craze leads to a domestic disaster involving laundry bluing and a very angry wife.
- The First Lacrosse Game Ever Played in Seattle
Five hundred spectators packed Madison Street Park as picked teams from Victoria introduced the city to lacrosse — and a stocky second-home nicknamed 'Billy' ran away with the show.
- A Breath of Fire-Damp Killed Twenty-Three Blue Canyon Miners
A coal-mine explosion near Lake Whatcom wiped out nearly an entire shift just before it was due to change, leaving only two survivors to tell what happened underground.
- The Blue Glass Cure: A Barber’s Quackery and a Seattle Elder’s Rage
In March 1877, an elderly Black man named Uncle Dan nearly came to blows with a white barber over a ridiculous 'medical' treatment involving blue window panes and sunlight.
- A Town Buries Its Miners
Funeral services for the Blue Canyon mine disaster dead fill Bay View cemetery as a coroner's jury begins asking whether enough air—and enough regulation—reached the men underground.
- Twenty-Three Dead, and a Jury Clears the Company
An inquest into the explosion that killed twenty-three miners at the Blue Canyon mine blames gas and dust — and flatly exonerates the company of any fault.
- Violence in the Blue Front Saloon
A jealous confrontation over a woman leads to a stabbing in Seattle's historic Whitechapel district, highlighting the dangerous intersections of social life in the 1890s.
- The Day Tacoma Painted Itself Blue, White and Yellow
A mile-long parade, camels, a captive elk and a senator's electric button opened the Interstate Fair in a burst of Northwest boosterism.
- Uncle Sam Trades British Coal for a Bellingham Bay Mine
A test run by the Yorktown won Blue Canyon coal a federal contract—and local boosters dared to imagine Puget Sound fuel powering the nation’s ships.
- The Blue Ribbon Reunion at the Union Depot
A young man waits nightly at the Seattle train station, searching for a stranger marked by a blue ribbon on her wrist.
- The Case for Overalls and Mud
A mother asks for fashion advice for her nine-year-old, prompting a spirited editorial defense of childhood liberty and dirt-stained play.
- A Deadly Prank at the Blue Front
A malicious false alarm of a plague quarantine triggers a fatal panic in a Seattle dance hall.
- Fire Damp and Twenty-Three Dead at Blue Canyon
A gas explosion in a new coal working near Lake Whatcom kills twenty-three miners and forces a state inspection into what the company knew about the mine’s ventilation.
- The Bank That Ate Seven Men: A Collapse in the Blue Point Claim
In a gruesome industrial accident on April 13, 1877, a bank of earth at the Blue Point mine in Smartsville buried seven miners alive and wounded six more, halting business for miles around.
- A City Turns Out for Its Dead: Seattle's Memorial Day, 1895
Three hundred and five veterans, three militia companies, high-school cadets and a twelve-foot column of flowers marched Front Street and filled the Seattle Theater — while the Board of Health kept the schoolchildren from singing.
- Tragedy at Blue Canyon Mine
A Seattle carpenter falls forty-eight feet to his death after being struck by a coal car at a Whatcom County mine.
- Cheaper to Ship Wheat to Liverpool Than to Seattle: An Inland Empire Farmer's Case Against the Railroads
A Whitman County grower tells the Post-Intelligencer that Palouse wheat can be raised for about 30 cents a bushel — and sent 16,000 miles to England for less than the railroad charges to haul it 400 miles to the Sound.
- The Price of a Drunkard’s Grave
A teenage boy is fined for public intoxication, sparking an editorial demand to hold the 'Blue Front' saloon owner accountable for serving minors.
- Arson and Betrayal at the 'Bucket of Blood'
A notorious King Street saloon is at the center of a criminal conspiracy involving insurance fraud and a fractured family business.
- A Polish Rancher in Muddy Boots Sits Down at the Piano and Steals the Show
Two hundred people in fancy dress fill the Olympia Theater to raise $83.75 for a Sherman Valley schoolhouse — with the lieutenant governor on fiddle, the mayor managing, and the sage of the valley in blue overalls at the keyboard.
- Midnight Collision on the Sound
A steam tug towing a barge is struck by an ocean-going ship in the dark of night, leaving the tug's crew scrambling for their lives.
- Tragic Workplace Death at Blue Canyon Coal Bunkers
A fireman was killed at Blue Canyon coal bunkers when his clothing caught in the shaft gearing on New Year's Day.
- The Blue Sand Beneath Seattle
In September 1876, a crew of Chinese laborers excavating the foundation for a new building at Wellington and Third struck a rare geological treasure: a bed of pure blue sand.
- The Blues of the Black River: A Walk Through Snohomish’s New Frontier
A local resident takes a stroll through the muddy pastures and new homesteads near the Black River, finding beauty in the 'mounds' of ancient history and the promise of a fresh start for settlers.
- Twenty-Three Miners Died in a Nearly Undamaged Mine
Inspector Edmunds told a Seattle paper that the Blue Canyon explosion was one of the strangest disasters he had ever seen: the mine was barely damaged, yet 23 men were dead, most killed by concussion and gas.
Also about this, in other words
- Liquor Dealers Form Protective Shield
A statewide association of liquor dealers pledges to provide legal counsel for members facing 'blue law' prosecutions.
- The Blue Law Brawl: Saloon Keepers vs. The Temperance Crusade
In North Yakima, the Women's Christian Temperance Union declares war on Sunday commerce, arresting boxers and threatening every saloon owner in town.
- The Knight in Blue: Officer Grant’s Chivalrous Knife Work Saves a Tacoma Lady
When a piece of lace tore during the Christian Endeavor convention, one Seattle policeman didn't just offer sympathy—he offered his pocketknife and a bow.
- The Boys in Blue Arrive in Seattle
When federal troops were deployed to suppress anti-Chinese violence in 1885, they found themselves quartered in a local opera house, leading to a strange and rowdy few days in the city.
- The Walla Walla Wheat Market Stirs
After weeks of inactivity, farmers begin selling their blue stem harvest as international market prices climb.
- A New Town Called Cady Rises with 37 Lots—and a Saloon
Engineer Fleming platted Cady a quarter-mile from Blueslide, where a hotel, store and saloon are already rising—and more saloons are expected by spring.
- The Shadow Army of 1880
A secret, oath-bound military organization of 'Boys in Blue' stirs fears of a rigged election and armed insurrection in Washington Territory.
- The Saloonkeeper’s Open Letter to Walla Walla Voters
An unapologetic endorsement of Mayor Hunt from a local saloon owner who argues that city officials should ignore 'blue laws' in favor of prosperity.