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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
10 stories matching cistern
- The Seventeenth-Foot Toad
Workers digging a cistern in Tacoma discover a living toad buried seventeen feet deep in hardpan.
- The East End Fire Fight
After a local shop burned down, a councilman demands improved water access and fire equipment for the city's growing East End.
- The Town Council Declares War on Filth
A sweeping new health ordinance outlaws backyard pigsties, mandates watertight privy vaults, and grants city officials the power to condemn contaminated wells.
- Post Office Inferno Narrowly Avoided
A quick-thinking resident discovers a fire smoldering under the post office stove, saving the block from total destruction.
- The Fight for Tacoma’s Taps
As the city council hunts for a reliable water source, aggressive machinery lobbyists swarm City Hall, complicating the push for clean, deep-well water.
- The Hilltop Inferno: Arson Claims a Seattle Landmark
When the residence of J.P. Robbins burned in 1877, the city’s lack of water infrastructure and public apathy turned a potential save into a total loss.
- Building a City on Sagebrush and Ambition
As 1890 dawns, a North Yakima editor reflects on a year of rapid growth, fire, and the relentless quest for the state capital.
- Steilacoom’s Editor Asks Who Will Start the Fire Brigade
With wooden buildings packed into the business district and no reservoir, engine or ladder company, the Puget Sound Herald warns that a single blaze could erase the town’s prospects.
- The Wettest Spring in Memory: Walla Walla’s Deluge and the Rainbow That Spanned Mountains
While Seattle residents fret over rain cisterns, neighbors to the east endure a historic deluge that has delayed planting and produced a rare midnight rainbow stretching from the Cascades to the Columbia.
- Olympia’s Blackest Day: A City on the Brink of Ruin
A recent fire in the state capital exposes the desperate need for modern water works and steam engines, as Olympia’s leadership warns that 'any morning may see the balance of the city in ruins.'