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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
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| 1925 | 2 |
52 stories matching chinook
- Thirty-Three Acres and a Question of Heirs: A Native Estate Argued in Chinook
A probate courtroom fills with White River Indians, most seated on the carpet, as a judge who once rode Chinook jargon as his Pegasus weighs whether to sell a dead man's land to pay his debts.
- The Great Chinook Flood of 1925
A rapid thaw across the Yakima Valley triggered widespread flooding, inundating low-lying roads and Crab Creek in the highest water event in over a decade.
- Repairs for the Chinook on the Waterfront
A routine dispatch from the January 1891 docks captures the industrial heart of old Seattle, where the tugboat Chinook sits on the beach for repairs at the foot of Jackson Street.
- The Lawyer Who Spoke 'Jargon' to Save a Man from Prison
In a Tacoma courtroom in the early days of Washington state, Attorney Frank Clark stunned federal prosecutors by abandoning legalese for Chinook Jargon, winning the acquittal of a poor logger accused of stealing timber.
- Designing the Washington Territory Seal
An early proposal for the official seal that featured a log cabin, a settler’s wagon, and the Chinook jargon word 'Alki'.
- The Battle Over the Stillaguamish River
Captains of steamers, long delayed by the Chinook Boom Company's gates, finally force federal intervention.
- The Shoalwater Bay Indigenous Exhibit
A meticulously assembled collection of maritime technology and daily life from the Shoalwater Bay tribes prepares for the World's Fair.
- New Rail Expansion Coming to the Peninsula
Surveyors are mapping a route from South Bend toward the Columbia River, sparking speculation about the Northern Pacific's long-term infrastructure plans for the Washington coast.
- A Chinook Wind Melted Seattle's Snow—and Nearly Swamped the Sound
A furious overnight blow downed telegraph wires, sent a 1,600-ton ship back out to sea, and left Seattle wondering what the storm had done in the Straits of Fuca.
- The Jailbreak at the Lava-Beds
A woman held in a Seattle lockup executes a daring escape, shedding her clothes and fleeing toward the wilderness after outsmarting her captor.
- The Birthday Deception in Ballard
A local reading circle purposely published a false meeting announcement to surprise a popular schoolteacher on her birthday.
- Seattle Kept Its Quarantine — and Cleared Every Native Family Off Ballast Island
With smallpox burning through Victoria and Vancouver, Seattle's health board refuses to reopen the port. Then a policeman hears Chinook on the waterfront and orders an entire encampment off the island 'until the quarantine is raised.'
- The Great Columbia Salmon Run Was Dying — and Oregon and Washington Couldn't Agree Who Should Save It
In 1894 a Portland memorial to Congress warned that the Chinook were vanishing: a $31.5 million trade, thousands of jobs, and a two-state turf war over who got to regulate the river.
- Richland Submerged in Sudden Thaw
A rapid temperature rise melts deep snow, turning Richland streets into lakes and threatening the town's infrastructure.
- The Interpreter’s Standoff
A courtroom drama unfolds when a key Indigenous interpreter refuses to work without guaranteed pay, stalling a high-stakes murder case.
- The Chinook Chief's Grandson Who Was Shipwrecked in Japan
Ranald McDonald — son of a Hudson's Bay trader and Chief Comcomly's daughter — died on the Colville reservation after a life that carried him from Astoria to a Japanese prison and back to the mouth of the Columbia.
- Seven Inches in Ten Days: The Flood That Broke Puget Sound
A warm Chinook melted mountain snow into relentless rain, washing out the Northern Pacific, wrecking the Naphtha launch works, and isolating towns from Tacoma to Seattle.
- Winter’s Toll on the Yakima Range
Deep snow and poor grazing conditions lead to mass livestock casualties as ranchers report dire losses.
- The First Wedding in Seattle, Replayed 42 Years Later
David T. Denny and Louisa Denny marked their 42nd anniversary at Decatur Terrace with pioneer friends, a Chinook pow-wow, and a grandson's poem.
- The Tent City Spokesman
Recalling the winter of 1909, when the White Bluffs Spokesman was forced to publish out of a canvas tent to keep the town's news flowing.
- An Indigenous Man Challenges a Broken Contract
A legal dispute over a fishing net reveals the tension between Indigenous property rights and the courts.
- The Unfair Bounty of the Hood Canal
Local fishers lament that millions of salmon are being shipped away for canning, leaving the local community to profit nothing from their own waters.
- The Last Voyage of Ronald McDonald
Son of an Astor Fur Company founder and grandson of Chief Comcomly, Ronald McDonald dies on the Colville Indian Reservation after a life of shipwreck, captivity, and frontier guiding.
- A Class Day of Mud and Ivy
Students of the class of 1915 traded their books for tools to beautify the school grounds, planting trees and laying a stone wall in a historic day of communal labor.
- The Manufactured 'Venice of America'
A writer discovers his picturesque essay on the Sound country was secretly rewritten into a promotional advertisement for Tacoma.
Also about this, in other words
- The Miner Who Came Home: A Snohomish Native Rejects the Yukon for the Slough
After years of chasing gold in British Columbia and finding only poverty, Neil McMillan returns to his old partner's side on Ehey Slough to start a ranch, proving that local timber is more valuable than distant dreams.
- Surveying the Edge of the Colville Reservation
A grueling three-month expedition through dense forests and mountain terrain reveals the challenges of mapping Washington's frontier.
- The Cannery Boom: Salmon, Chinamen, and the Gold Rush of the Columbia
A detailed look at the massive industrial scale of the Pacific Northwest's salmon industry in 1877, revealing the harsh labor conditions and the central role of Chinese workers.