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743 stories matching boom
- The Pend Oreille Swells Toward a Record Crest
Heavy rains in Montana send drift and broken booms downstream, threatening Newport’s mills and log supply.
- The Price of the 'Boom' in 1885 Seattle
While the city rode a wave of prosperity, locals were already feeling the strain of rapid expansion, speculation, and the 'dull times' that inevitably follow a growth spurt.
- Four Million Feet of Logs: The Boom Comes to the Pend d'Oreille
A logging company began driving pilings for a 4-million-foot log boom and a new sawmill on the Pend d'Oreille riverfront.
- The Great Log Jam: A River of Lost Timber
In March 1877, a sudden rise in the Skykomish River swept away thousands of feet of logs belonging to local sawmills, turning a potential fortune into driftwood.
- The Log-Jam Monopoly: Who Controls a Western Washington River?
When Joseph Doyle’s logs were trapped inside a private boom company’s platted stretch of the Skokomish River, he sued—and put the whole question of river monopolies and public waterways on trial in Shelton.
- The Snohomish River Logjam: A Dispute Over Private Property and Public Waters
In 1878, a Grand Jury investigation into local business practices reveals a tense standoff between lumber interests and the community over the obstruction of the Snohomish River.
- Steaming Through the Puget Sound Boom, Town by Town
A Seattle traveler’s 1883 voyage aboard the Idaho finds crowded wharves, railroad dreams, and real-estate prices high enough to check the very boom they fed.
- A Rockefeller Tells Seattle It Is Destined to Be the New York of the Pacific
Visiting Cleveland iron magnate F. Rockefeller—brother of John D.—says the harbor beats New York's and the ore is right here, if only the city will manufacture instead of import and steer clear of the boomers who killed Wichita.
- The Battle Over the Stillaguamish River
Captains of steamers, long delayed by the Chinook Boom Company's gates, finally force federal intervention.
- The Great Log Jam of 1877
Heavy autumn rains trigger a massive flood on the Snoqualmie and Skykomish rivers, sweeping timber mills and millions of feet of logs downstream.
- A Scantling Scuffle at the Boom
A simmering dispute over local timber booms erupts in violence at Chenoise Creek.
- Spokane Falls Fires Back at the Boom-Sayers
A Walla Walla society paper printed a traveler's claim that Spokane Falls was a real-estate humbug at its zenith. The Falls' editor answered with population figures, water power, and an invitation to tour the new bridge.
- The Temperance Boom Comes to Seattle
Frances E. Willard, the national leader of the WCTU, receives a massive, star-studded welcome at Yesler's Hall to launch a campaign for moral reform.
- A Tragic Afternoon on Lake Washington
A young boy is struck down by a sailboat boom during a sudden squall, and his father's grim prophecy about the lake is chillingly fulfilled.
- The Ghost Town of a Pioneer's Dream
A German immigrant spends decades waiting for his Puget Sound homestead to become a metropolis, only to see the boom vanish as quickly as it arrived.
- The Girl Who Danced on the Boom: A Seattle Near-Miss
In October 1876, a young girl’s reckless game on a floating log boom in Elliott Bay nearly ended in tragedy, sparking warnings about parental neglect and the dangers of Seattle’s waterfront.
- The Fever and the Fall: Life in a Frontier Boomtown
A vivid account of the psychological and physical intensity of rapid urban growth—and the devastating silence left behind when the bubble bursts.
- The Myth of the Everett Building Boom
Local labor leaders debunk a fabricated 'building boom' story, warning it is a reckless tactic to lure surplus labor for anti-union motives.
- The Seattle Star’s Bold Prediction: Cable Cars, Real Estate Booms, and the 'Famine' of Housing
In March 1899, the city's leading paper championed new transit infrastructure as the key to unlocking a real estate boom, while simultaneously warning of a severe shortage of homes for newcomers.
- The Great Olympia Real Estate Boom: 'Only a Question of Time'
As the capital city experiences a frenzy of property sales and predicts its future as a metropolis powered by Turnwater Falls, locals debate whether the boom is sustainable or just hype.
- The Skagit Gold Rush Mirage
When the promise of easy riches on the Skagit River sparked a frantic, ill-fated mining boom, Seattle’s local press faced accusations of peddling a dangerous myth.
- Two Preachers, One Real-Estate Boom, and a Referee’s Biblical Burn
In 1892 Seattle, ministers sold Ravenna Park lots from the pulpit—then sued each other over the commissions.
- A Former Seattle Policeman Fell Between the Logs — and the Tide Took Him Before Anyone Could
Edward Kane went out at nine o'clock to bring in a raft of spruce. At noon his hat and pike pole were floating on water barely four feet deep, and there was no body to be found.
- Home of Boom Overseer Destroyed by Fire
Passengers on the Clan McDonald discover a house engulfed in flames while passing, but it is too late to save the structure.
- Boy Scout Rescues Drowning Child from Anacortes Waterfront
A 14-year-old uses his training to save a drowning boy from the logs at the foot of 31st Street.
Also about this, in other words
- The Boom That Refuses To Bust
While critics predicted the collapse of the Washington boom, the territory points to its literal bedrock—coal, iron, timber, and grain—as proof of its enduring prosperity.
- The 'Boom Town' Bust of Chin Kiang
A cautionary tale of real estate speculation from the pages of 1889 Seattle.
- The Boom That Never Was: How Utsalaay Tried to Steal Seattle's Thunder
In 1901, a rival town on Puget Sound launched an aggressive land sales campaign, claiming its harbor was superior and its resources 'inexhaustible,' while Seattle’s own economy sat in a dull slump.
- The Great Tacoma Brick Boom: A City Building Itself Into the Future
As ten new brick structures rise on Water Street and real estate auctions fetch record prices, Tacoma’s leaders are betting big on a booming future—despite labor shortages and material scarcity.
- A Sober Assessment of the Seattle Boom
A local businessman warns Easterners against the 'real estate sharks' and urges caution for those moving West.
- The Boomtown Pulse of 1876
A booster’s-eye view of a rapidly industrializing Seattle, where housing was cheap, the bay teemed with fish, and laborers arrived by the steamer-load.
- The Log Boom Battle at Salmon Bay
A railroad company takes the city of Ballard to court over control of tide lands, seeking to block the city from driving piles for its own infrastructure.
- The Boom That Built Bellingham: How Four Towns Merged Into One City
In the spring of 1904, the bustling communities of Sehome, Whatcom, Fairhaven, and Bellingham were rapidly converging. With housing prices soaring and carpenters working day and night, this historic merger created the city we know today.