Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 22 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 7 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 16 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 8 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 10 |
| 1888 | 8 |
| 1889 | 16 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 11 |
| 1892 | 32 |
| 1893 | 25 |
| 1894 | 25 |
| 1895 | 16 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1903 | 10 |
| 1904 | 6 |
| 1908 | 4 |
| 1909 | 6 |
| 1910 | 3 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 4 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 2 |
271 stories matching brush
- The Persistent Peddler of Front Street
A persistent brush salesman tries to make a sale in 1876 Seattle, leading to an amusing exchange about baldness and local vanity.
- The Price of Reckless Clearing
A brush-clearing fire near Yacolt spiraled into one of the Northwest's most catastrophic blazes, incinerating 23,000 acres and destroying $200,000 in property.
- The Night They Were Left in the Brush: A Highway Robbery on Third Avenue
Two desperate men held up three victims at gunpoint near the Union Trunk Hotel, binding them in the cold wet brush while a fourth escaped. One victim’s wife walked within twenty feet of the scene, unaware her husband was lying bound nearby.
- Seattle Begins Filling Its Tide Flats
Surveyors lay the base line and piledrivers start a brush-and-earth bulkhead along Railroad Avenue, turning watery flats into buildable ground.
- The Boy Who Vanished Into the Dirt
A contractor’s chilling account of a six-year-old who fell into an open trench and was buried alive—only to be dug out just in time.
- The Miracle of the Scalped Man
A brush with death on the frontier: a survivor recounts the chilling moment he was scalped by Indians and miraculously saved by his traveling party.
- The Great Escape at Port Madison
A convicted murderer slips past a guard and vanishes into the thick brush, sparking a frantic island-wide manhunt.
- The Unlikely Paradise of the Sagebrush
While cattle ranchers once guarded their grazing ranges, a 1878 report from the Yakima Valley reveals the early, optimistic push to transform 'useless' desert land into a thriving agricultural hub.
- A Night in the Hollow Tree
A traveler lost in the brush near Snohomish spends a freezing, rain-soaked night in an hollowed-out tree, only to discover he was feet away from safety.
- A Hunter's Bear Hug Nearly Becomes His Last
Adam Mechling shot at what he took for a fawn in the Skagit County woods and found himself beneath a 300-pound she bear.
- The Thief Who Crawled into a Hole
A petty shoplifting chase leads to an absurd standoff underneath a downtown storefront.
- The Pioneer Road Builders of Lake Washington
A correspondent reports on the impressive transformation of a rugged trail into a county-grade road, achieved entirely through the voluntary labor of local settlers.
- A Child's Dangerous Encounter in the Brush
A young girl is fighting for her life after a rattlesnake attack near the Teanaway River.
- Young Daughter Rescues Father from Burning Brush
A Sumner man falls into a fire while clearing brush, only to be pulled to safety by his two young daughters.
- Bellingham Bay Burned While Puget Sound Choked on Smoke
Forest fires from the British border to the Olympic Mountains sent a pall over Seattle, slowed steamers and trains, and destroyed homes, a bridge and a thirty-room mansion near Whatcom.
- The Night They Walked to an Indian Village: A Shipwreck Survivor’s Tale
After the steamer *Port Gordon* smashed against rocks near Destruction Island, four men survived a nightmare of broken lines and drowning comrades by building a raft from hatches—and then walking ten miles through the brush.
- The Deadly Ambush at Council Prairie
An eye-witness account of a harrowing escape during the Puget Sound Indian War, describing a fatal skirmish, a desperate trek through winter swamps, and the loss of Colonel A. Benton Moses.
- The Ghost in the Yellow Trunk
A tip from surveyors leads two intrepid reporters to the shores of Alki Point, where they unearth a grim secret hidden in the brush.
- The Ghost of Sunnydale
A man arrives looking for work, strips off his clothes, and vanishes into the brush—leaving behind only a purse, a poll tax receipt, and a trail of mystery.
- The $275,000 Plan to Dredge Olympia Into a Deep-Water Port
In 1892, a federal engineer proposed cutting a 12-foot channel through two miles of tide flats so ocean steamers could reach Fourth Street. The price tag was $275,000—and a bet on Olympia’s future.
- An Unknown Man Found Dead in South Seattle
A woman discovering a man's body in the brush near a local spring leads to an investigation that unearths a tragic, nameless end.
- The Desert Bloom of Ainsworth
A skeptical traveler discovers a German immigrant coaxing bountiful gardens from the dusty sagebrush plains of the Snake River.
- A 1.5-Million-Acre Taking: The Colville Reservation Was About to Be Thrown Open
Federal officials and land agents anticipated a rush of white homesteaders into the southern half of the Colville Indian Reservation, framing Indigenous land as 'closed' and state growth as its natural destiny.
- The Deputy Who Outdrew Tom Blanck
Wounded in the wrist and neck, John Shepich recounts the railroad-track shootout near Kent—and insists that the fatal bullet was his alone.
- The Tragedy on the Quinault
A ranching partnership ends in a fatal, accidental shooting in the remote wilderness.
Also about this, in other words
- The Brush-Fence Feud
A long-standing dispute between two prominent ranchers ends in a fatal ambush in rural Thurston County.
- Brush Fire Consumes Hay and Hog Pens at Costello Ranch
A routine cleanup of orchard waste turns into a local disaster when a sudden wind catches the rancher's winter feed supply.
- The Horror in the Brush
Surveyors working in the woods of West Seattle discover a yellow trunk containing a gruesome, blood-stained discovery that suggests a dark crime.
- A Spokane Craftsman's Twelve-Year Masterpiece in Human Hair
Charles Streib spent over a decade creating portraits of Generals Washington and Sherman from thousands of strands of human hair—a feat of patience and artistry that astonished the city.
- The Unidentified Man in the Brush
A decomposing body found in the northern woods of Seattle leaves behind only a silver watch and a curious note.
- Lost in the Brush: A Yakima Valley Rescue
After days lost in the mountains without food or proper clothing, a man is saved by neighbors near the Ahtanum.
- Razor Fight at the Colored Club
A minor dispute between acquaintances escalates into a violent struggle that ends with a ruined suit and a dropped prosecution.
- A Literal Sagebrush Collision
A local man's unadvertised diving exhibition ends in a heap of sagebrush.