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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 1 |
45 stories matching boon
- Domestic Tragedy Ends in Murder
A confession reveals a deadly conspiracy and a motive rooted in marital strife.
- The Scandal of the Crumbling Hospital
An architect blows the whistle on shoddy bricks and corner-cutting builders at the new Territorial Hospital.
- The City’s New Face
Architect W. E. Boone unveils ambitious plans for a massive brick residence and new commercial structures, signaling a construction boom in Seattle.
- The Looming Bottleneck: Seattle’s Growing Pains in 1888
An architect’s urgent warning to city leaders echoes through time: invest in infrastructure now, or pay ten times the cost later.
- The Razor’s Edge: A Wenatchee Family Erased in One Night
On July 13, 1905, Charles H. Davis, a former bartender, killed his wife and infant son before taking his own life at their Boone Avenue home.
- A Damning Report on Seattle's Water Works
A Chamber of Commerce committee found a hastily built municipal water system, political patronage and missing maps—and urged Seattle to hire a professional engineer at $5,000 a year.
- 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 First Gold-Cure Club in Washington
At Olympia's Keeley Institute, former patients formed the state's first Bi-chloride of Gold Club—part mutual-aid society, part fundraising engine for poor alcoholics who could not afford the cure.
- The New Jewel of the Seattle Skyline
A descriptive look at the newly completed Yesler-Leary block, a state-of-the-art brick edifice at the corner of Mill and Front streets.
- The Struggle to Open Snoqualmie Pass
A pioneer successfully demonstrates the feasibility of winter transit, igniting hope for a direct route between Eastern and Western Washington.
- County Delays $10,000 Bid to Bring Widows' Home to Walla Walla
Business leaders urge Walla Walla officials to secure a charitable orphanage, despite questions regarding the legality of the county's $10,000 contribution.
- A Wife's Testimony Was Enough: Supreme Court Reverses Divorce Denial
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that a wife's own account of cruelty and habitual drunkenness could justify a divorce, reversing a lower court that had dismissed Nellie Lee's case.
- 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.
- An 1872 Manifesto for the 'Working Girl'
In an era of stifling expectations, a Seattle newspaper columnist argues that women should prioritize professional autonomy over the 'inferno' of a loveless marriage.
- The Ballard Y.M.C.A. Rebels Against Seattle
After the city association attempted to dissolve the Ballard branch, residents rallied to save the reading rooms from the saloons.
- The Madam, the Capitalist, and the Broken Door
Lou Graham, who ran a South Fourth Street brothel, swore out a warrant against a wealthy Seattle capitalist after a drunken spree ended with a slap—and a quiet cover-up.
- The Special Train That Carried Alma Kasemeyer to Surgery
When appendicitis struck at a Hanford house party, the Milwaukee branch line chartered an engine and coach to get a young woman to the Olympian—and a Spokane operating table.
- The Battle for the Navy Yard: Port Orchard vs. Lake Washington
A naval commission has officially recommended Port Orchard as the future site for a navy yard, but local boosters of Lake Washington aren't giving up, citing fresh water anchorage and commercial synergy.
- Tacoma Bets Its Future on a Giant Interstate Fair
In August 1891, Governor McGraw urged every county to send exhibits as Tacoma raced to open a fair that promised to fill hotels, showcase the Northwest, and put the city on the map.
- The Day the Republic Won: Whitman County’s Political Earthquake
In the wake of Benjamin Harrison’s narrow presidential victory, Whitman County voters delivered a landslide for the GOP, sweeping county offices and signaling a new era for Pullman and the Palouse.
- The Moonlit Confession: A Romantic Friendship in Snohomish
A local resident’s poetic declaration of love to a companion named Fidencia, published in the 'Wonders' column, reveals the tender, coded language of queer intimacy in late-19th century Washington.
- The Man Who Couldn't Be Named: A Mysterious Suicide on Pike Street
In the early hours of a Seattle morning in 1902, a barkeeper discovers a stranger dead in his room with no ID and a note addressed to 'Joe.' The city is left with a body, a mystery, and a morphine bottle.
- The Senator’s Farewell: Mrs. Squire’s Lobby Battle and a Pledge to 'All the People'
As Watson Squire prepares to leave Seattle for Washington D.C., his wife recounts the chaotic reality of their election victory at the Olympia hotel, while he pledges impartial service to the entire state.
- The Seattle Judge Who Stood Up to 'Professional' Idlers
When a woman shot her abusive husband in 1886, a Seattle judge refused to convict her, explicitly calling out a class of men who lived off the earnings of their wives' shame.
- The Sudden End of a Colorful Pioneer Judge
Isaac M. Hall, a celebrated attorney and former probate judge, collapses in a saloon after a long night of reciting poetry and debate.
Also about this, in other words
- The Well in the Wenas
A local carpenter, suffering from the effects of alcohol, met a gruesome and solitary end after falling into a spring in the Wenas Valley.
- The Precarious Wealth of a Marcus Bachelor
A wealthy settler in the Colville Valley suffers a public health scare, highlighting the risks of frontier isolation and the burden of managing an estate.
- A Father’s Hardship and the Telegram That Changed Everything
An overworked, weary business man contemplates his supposed failures until a birthday message from his daughter provides a new perspective on success.
- The Retired Wrestler and the Bull
A former champion wrestler faces the fight of his life against an enraged bull on Beacon Hill.
- The Abandonment of Ong Let
A Chinese domestic servant faces death alone in the hospital after his community fund dries up and authorities offer no help.
- Hops of Port Blakely: The Cast-Off Clothes Protégé Who Saved a Captain
A Post-Intelligencer reporter hears from John Corbett how an Indigenous man named Williams earned a lifetime of beer, boarding-house meals, and the run of the Port Blakely mill.
- The Axe Slip That May Have Cost a Newport Boy His Foot
Will Scott, 15, was helping his father at a Jackson wood camp near Penrith when the axe glanced from a log, severing cords and crushing bone in his foot. Dr. Phillips dressed the wound.
- The Tragedy of the 'Dizzy' Actor
A backstage look at the fading stars of the Pacific Coast theater circuit.