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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
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| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
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35 stories matching chute
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Into the Black: A Descent into Bellingham Bay Coal Mines
An intrepid traveler documents the perilous journey down an 800-foot incline to explore the workings of the Bellingham Bay Coal Company in the late 19th century.
- Tragedy at the Tacoma Coal Bunkers
A collapse of a loading chute drops seven men into forty feet of water, leading to a desperate rescue attempt and a tragic loss.
- Fatal Industrial Failure at Toutle River
A logger is struck and killed by a runaway shingle bolt, highlighting the extreme dangers of manual timber work.
- 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.
- The Chute That Killed Black Diamond's Mine Superintendent
John Pritchard Sr., superintendent of the Denny Clay Company mine, died instantly when he was caught between a car and a chute underground.
- Tragedy at the Gale Creek Coal Mine
An Austrian miner dies from gas inhalation after returning too early to a freshly blasted chute.
- The 75-Foot Coal Chute Plunge
A dock worker survived a terrifying descent through a ship's coal bunker, landing 75 feet below in the hold.
- Tragedy at the Wilkeson Mines
A local laborer dies in a sudden industrial accident at the coal chutes.
- Explosion Targets Japanese Workers
A home housing Japanese laborers in Wenatchee was destroyed by explosives to intimidate them away from a coal chute project.
- The Oriole Mine Strikes Pay Dirt
After months of development in the Metaline camp, the Oriole mine prepares to ship high-grade lead and silver ore.
- A Life-Threatening Day at the Yesler Wharf
While working at the coal chutes in 1872 Seattle, a young man is crushed by a rail car, highlighting the brutal risks of the city’s early industrial backbone.
- Horrific Mill Accident Near Spokane
A sawmill proprietor is killed instantly after becoming caught in machinery while clearing a chute.
- A Workplace Tragedy at the Docks
A yard hand files a lawsuit against the Stetson-Post Mill Company after a logging accident on a dangerous, chute-less dock left him permanently injured.
- The Road That Would Remake the Des Chutes Shore
Tumwater landowners and boosters want a new beach road to Olympia, promising easier travel, new homes, and higher property values.
- The Brakeman's Fall
A train brakeman sues the Oregon Improvement Company after falling into a pitch-black coal chute at night.
- A Correspondent Reports on the Nez Perce Conflict
Writing from Olympia in 1877, a local correspondent describes Nez Perce leaders’ refusal to relocate and the surprise attack that sparked a war many understood as a defense of home.
- A Breath of Fire-Damp Killed Twenty-Three Blue Canyon Miners
A coal-mine explosion near Lake Whatcom wiped out nearly an entire shift just before it was due to change, leaving only two survivors to tell what happened underground.
- The Day the Wharves Froze: Tacoma’s Lumber Workers Strike Over Wage Cuts
In March 1890, dockworkers at Tacoma’s massive timber mills walked off the job when owners slashed their monthly pay from $60 to $45. The resulting gridlock piled lumber so high it brought the entire industry to a halt.
- A Coal Town Crawls Back From the Fire That Entombed Forty Miners
Six months after the Coal Creek disaster, a reporter follows Newcastle's superintendent a thousand feet underground into the new mine the company is racing to make bigger than the one it lost.
- The Iron Road Comes to the Sound
With the first section of the Seattle and Walla Walla railroad under heavy construction, the city braces for a transformation that promises to connect the waterfront to the mountains.
- Down the Dark Drift: A Tour of Seattle’s Coal Mines
In December 1876, a reporter takes readers on an arduous journey from Lake Union to Newcastle to witness the grueling labor and industrial scale of Puget Sound's most vital industry.
- The Perils of the Seattle Waterfront
While Seattle’s industrial boom demanded constant labor, workers were often left with crushed limbs and little recourse.
- A Spokane Real Estate Agent Turns Horse Thief
E.C. Gurney, formerly considered a 'model citizen' of Spokane, is arrested while attempting to ship stolen Indian-owned livestock East.
- The Great Alarm Debate
Walla Walla’s City Council considers whether to invest in a modern fire alarm system or rely on an improvised network of city telephones.
Also about this, in other words
- A Runaway Caboose in Nisqually Canyon
A train car breaks loose on the Tacoma Eastern line, turning into a runaway vehicle that ends in a wreck.
- A Handcar on the Trestle, a Train Around the Curve
Calhoun's crew was sent east of Spokane Falls to stand by a switch for the excursion trains. A belated passenger train rounded a curve onto their handcar; the men jumped, but a Chinese laborer was severely injured.
- Barnstorming Above the Valley
A daredevil aerial show featuring parachute jumps and mid-air transfers lands in Yakima, showcasing the post-WWI obsession with flight.
- Modernizing the Woods
The shift from oxen to steam power and wire cables is changing the face of the logging industry along the Wishkah River.
- Death on the Wire: The Perilous Walk of Snohomish’s Bridge Builders
While politicians scheme in safe offices, local workers are laying footbridges over the Skykomish River at dizzying heights, performing a feat described as 'the most dangerous part of the grand work.'
- Worker Injured in Elevator Shaft Fall
A mortar man narrowly survives a thirty-foot plummet at the construction site of the Cadwell building.
- The Skeleton Bridge: A Warning to Newcomers
A local correspondent details the perilous state of the Pill Chuck bridge in Snohomish County, describing it as a 'monument of goshend ativeness' that forces travelers to crawl on all fours across a single stringer.
- A Farmer's Quarter-Mile Wall Against the Pend Oreille
After losing $3,000 in crops, John Davas built a dike near Dalkena high enough to turn back the spring flood—and stout enough to protect his neighbors.