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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
25 stories matching bonanza
- The 1877 Guide to Starting Over in Seattle
When settlers from the Midwest wrote to the Seattle Intelligencer asking about the frontier, they got a blunt primer on the local economy, the 'bonanza' of land speculation, and the reality of life in the rainy territory.
- After the Bankruptcy, a Mill Town Bets on a Bonanza: Utsalady's 1877 Rebound
In a single March week, the Camano Island mill town of Utsalady snapped back from bankruptcy: a $30,000 mill sale, workmen arriving by steamer, plans for a new wharf — and a showman who decided to stay.
- The Gold Bonanza Beneath the Palouse
On the headwaters of the North Palouse, two Farmington brothers struck a quartz ledge they say assays at more than $6,000 a ton — and they swear not one inch of it is for sale.
- The Copper Bonanza on San Juan Island
Local entrepreneurs Morgan and O'Bryant strike it rich with a silver-laced copper vein, promising to transform the rugged island into a major mining hub.
- The Coal That Wasn't: A Town’s Brief Hope for a Mining Bonanza
A newcomer to Seattle claims to have found a vein of coal in the hills, sparking local excitement before the details vanish into silence.
- The Hop Bonanza in the Puyallup Valley
An account of the massive agricultural boom in the Puyallup Valley, highlighting the success of local hop farmers and the looming shadow of the volcano.
- The White Bluffs Sweet Potato Bonanza
After local reports of a massive 27-ton-per-acre sweet potato yield went viral, a farmer finds himself fielding inquiries from skeptics and hopeful growers across the country.
- 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.
- The Guggenheim-Morgan Industrial Play for Tacoma
A proposed $20 million expansion of the Tacoma smelter and a new fleet of ships aim to cement a copper monopoly on the Pacific coast.
- The City That Voted to Grow: Seattle's 1892 Infrastructure Bond Bonanza
In a massive, city-wide referendum, Seattle residents went to the polls in March 1892 to approve a sweeping expansion of water, sewer, and municipal works that literally laid the foundation for the modern city.
- 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 Lost Ledge That Paid in Quicksilver
A remote mining claim north of Snohomish has turned out to be a bonanza for silver and mercury, drawing capital from across the state.
- The Reverend Who Hated Grays Harbor
A disgruntled preacher trashed Aberdeen in a Minnesota paper after he failed to find success in the Pacific Northwest—and local editors didn't take it lying down.
- The Dead Horses That Taught Tacoma How to Raise Sunken Ships
A Tacoma patent company says its collapsible air bags can lift wrecks from the sea floor—a trick supposedly inspired by a bloated boatload of horses in the Ohio River. Investors are already fighting over the fortune.
- Spokane Had Mining Fever, and the Men Selling the Stock Had the Only Sure Thing
A Yakima correspondent visits Spokane and finds a city where hotel clerks, newsboys and waiter girls are all buying mining shares — and where even Ezra Meeker has traded hops for a stock prospectus.
- The Snow That Stole the Gold: Snohomish County’s Mining Boom Hits a Wall
Arthur Hank, a prominent local investor, returns from Snohomish County with news of rich ore deposits—but warns that an unprecedented winter is halting development just as the region stands on the brink of becoming a major mining center.
- The Mystery Miners of Natcheez Pass
A trio of supposed prospectors arrived in Yakima with suspiciously heavy baggage, fueling local rumors of a hidden golden bonanza in the Cascades.
- The Waterfront 'Dead Animal' Grift
Seattle's city health authorities discover a morbid, recurring scam involving dead horses and the tides.
- An Everett Miner Sees a Bonanza in the Okanogan
New silver strikes, outside capital and a planned wagon road and railroad have an Everett miner predicting the best season the district has ever seen.
- The Blue-Flowered Bonanza: How Whatcom County Found Flax
A Ferndale doctor's experiments convince the federal government that Puget Sound can out-produce Europe's linen fields — and New York capital starts paying attention.
- The Northwest's Silver Lining in the California Drought
As farmers in California face a 'famine year' due to extreme dry weather, Puget Sound agriculture stands to gain from a surge in demand and profit.
- The Hard Sell for Inland Empire Farms
Spokane boosters and Kennewick business leaders draft a regional campaign to recruit farmers for 'untilled' lands, pivoting away from the era's wild land speculation.
- The Great Laundry War: Why Seattle Needs a 'White Labor' Steam Plant
In 1876, local entrepreneurs argued that Chinese washermen were stealing clothes and that white-owned steam laundries were the only way to save delicate women from catching cold.
- The Coal Rush: How 1876 Industry Linked Seattle and Tacoma
A historic editorial argues that the expansion of Northern Pacific Railroad coal lines from Puyallup will drive mutual prosperity for Seattle and its southern neighbor.
- The Professional Pessimists of Early Seattle
A 19th-century editorial takes aim at the 'croakers'—the local doomsayers who claimed the town's prosperity was always on the verge of collapse.
Also about this, in other words
- The Burning of the Bon Ton
After the proprietor of the notorious Bon Ton was jailed for running a 'bawdy house,' his building was razed by a suspicious fire.
- A Perilous Afternoon near Lake Union
A brush with disaster in the rugged timberlands of 1877 Seattle, where an accidental axe blow turned a day of surveying into a desperate journey for survival.
- A Saloon Showdown in Tacoma
A complicated dispute over a local watering hole descends into a flurry of mutual arrests and legal maneuvering.
- The Un-bucking Bronco
A town’s attempt to humble a cocky stranger with a legendary bucking horse backfires when the animal decides to behave.
- The Centennial Saloon Mystery
After much anticipation, a elusive character has finally been spotted at the local tavern, proving that some things in Seattle never change.
- The Royal Society of Good Fellows Throws a Party
Athletic contests, fireworks, and a topical song about 'Ta-ra-boom-de-ay' mark a lively celebration in the mining town of Gilman.
- The Saloonkeeper and the 'Fire' Scam
A Snohomish business owner accused of fraud faces court after a dubious claim that his saloon had burned down to escape a debt.
- Ambassador’s Cabin Turned Into Moonshine Distillery
While the U.S. Ambassador to Peru was away, local law enforcement raided his vacation cabin to find a family operating an illegal still in the basement.