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1. The Town That Was Never Filed: A Buyer Sues Over Columbia's Missing Plat

   Robert Blackburn paid for a lot in a heavily promoted new Seattle townsite, then discovered that no plat of Columbia had ever been recorded with the county auditor.

   Feb 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerColumbia City, Seattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

2. The Engineer Who Tamed the Tides: Col. Wilson’s Blueprint for Snohomish’s Future

   A master engineer presents a radical plan to dredge the Columbia and Willamette rivers, promising to unlock Seattle's potential by reshaping the very geography of the Pacific Northwest.

   Feb 24, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyBoom & Bust

3. They Said Seattle's Ship Canal Was Hogging the Money. The Appropriations Bill Said Otherwise.

   A Pierce County Democratic plank accuses Washington's senators of starving Northwest rivers and harbors to fund the Lake Washington canal. A Seattle paper answers with receipts — $2.3 million for the Columbia, roughly $100,000 for the canal — and an old rivalry with Portland and Tacoma underneath.

   Aug 31, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLake Washington Ship Canal, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

4. The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888

   When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.

   Jan 1, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Strange But True

5. The Promoter Who Built a Town on Paper

   J.K. Edmiston promised Columbia City buyers houses, church sites and Rainier Avenue lot profits. They got a lawsuit and a clouded title.

   Mar 30, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerRainier Avenue, Seattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

6. The Street That Vanished into the Tide

   A Seattle citizen recalls his lonely fight against a railroad company's takeover of Columbia Street, a legal battle that exposed the city's early history of corporate land giveaways.

   Feb 15, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerColumbia Street, Seattle, King CountyFollow the Money

7. The River That Wasn't: A Captain’s Quest to Put Kennewick on the Map

   Captain Martin L. Volwiler isn’t just shipping strawberries; he’s filming them from a boat deck to prove that the Columbia River is worth knowing about.

   Apr 16, 1914The Kennewick Courier-ReporterKennewick, Benton CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

8. The Railroad Draws a Line in the Mud: Seattle's Tidelands Declared Off-Limits

   In a public notice, the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad Company claims every foot of Elliott Bay shore south of King Street — wet sand, deep water and all — and warns the public to keep off without written permission.

   Mar 21, 1884Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

9. Whose Ox Gets Gored: Kennewick Draws the Line on County Bridge Bonds

   A Prosser editor's jab over a Columbia River bridge bond prompts the Kennewick Courier-Reporter to deny it ever sought a bridge — and to attack commissioners' power to borrow without a vote.

   Dec 28, 1916The Kennewick Courier-ReporterKennewick, Benton CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

10. The Price of Living in the Desert

    A scathing editorial calls out the discriminatory rail rates that forced Columbia Basin farmers to subsidize Puget Sound middlemen.

    Jun 25, 1914The Kennewick Courier-ReporterKennewick, Benton CountyFollow the Money

11. Drilling for Water Under Washington's Dry Wheat Country

    A federal geologist probes the desert east of the Columbia and the Big Bend wheatlands to see whether deep wells can water the dry interior — and finds pressure underground, but no free-flowing artesian springs.

    Feb 1, 1903The RanchCrab Creek, Moses LakeFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

12. Honoring the Forgotten Pathfinder of the Columbia

    After decades in an unmarked pauper's grave, the explorer who first traced the Columbia River to the sea finally receives his due.

    Jun 8, 1923White Bluffs SpokesmanSpokane, Spokane County

13. The Salmon Strike That Moved an Industry: How Columbia River Fishermen’s Union Priced Themselves Out of Business

    In February 1898, a Chicago buyer predicted that the fishermen's demand for higher wages would force salmon canneries to abandon the Columbia River for Alaska—a prediction that came true within a decade.

    Feb 27, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerAstoria, Pacific CountyWork & Pay

14. The Winter War Blueprint: An 1858 Campaign to Subdue the Tribes

    A field letter from the Indian war in Oregon and Washington urges the Army to occupy the Colville Valley, cut off Indigenous trade, and expel missionaries and Hudson’s Bay Company employees.

    Dec 10, 1858Puget Sound HeraldColville Valley, Colville, Stevens CountyExclusion & Resistance

15. The Lawless Slaughter of Columbia River Salmon

    A century and a half ago, reports from 1887 reveal that unregulated commercial fishing practices on the Columbia River led to the mass harvest of out-of-season fish, despite laws designed to prevent such waste.

    Aug 5, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

16. The Salmon-Trap Border War

    Oregon fish officers arrested Washington fishermen for violating a Sunday closure—then found themselves indicted for kidnapping.

    Jun 22, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerChinook, Pacific CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

17. The Open River Was Supposed to Pay Dividends. Was Anyone Counting?

    A year after the Celilo Canal opened, the Courier-Reporter asked whether the Inland Empire would actually use the river—and bragged that Kennewick was already the Columbia’s busiest freight town this side of Celilo.

    May 4, 1916The Kennewick Courier-ReporterKennewick, Benton CountyBoom & Bust

18. A Suicide Attempt at the Columbia House—and a Landlord's Cold Comfort

    Flora Sullivan, separated from her husband, took morphine in her room at Third and Columbia. She survived, but the paper made her despair a public story.

    Sep 5, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

19. The Fatal Dance of Washington's Ground Squirrels

    Scientists at the state agricultural college tried to wipe out crop-destroying rodents with bacteria—and found a native plague that sent infected squirrels spinning until they dropped.

    Sep 15, 1898Ranche and RangeWashington State University, Pullman, Whitman CountyStrange But True

20. The North Bank Railroad Boom

    A new joint venture between the Northern Pacific and Great Northern will connect Pasco to Portland, funneling millions into the regional economy.

    Sep 22, 1905The Kennewick CourierKennewick, Benton CountyBoom & Bust

21. A Dead Calm and a Disabled Engine: The Columbia Goes Ashore

    The steamship Columbia struck the mouth of Puget Sound on a quiet night, her machinery useless. Passengers and mail were saved; $200,000 in cargo was not.

    Nov 26, 1858Puget Sound HeraldPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyDisasters

22. The Salmon Wars of 1891: Puget Sound’s Battle for Fishing Sovereignty

    While the Columbia River dictated state fishing laws, Washington’s northern waters faced an existential threat, prompting a legislative clash over spawning cycles and local control.

    Feb 27, 1891The Seattle Post-IntelligencerOlympia, Thurston CountyFollow the Money

23. The Senator’s Lament: Puget Sound vs. the Columbia River

    In 1892, Senator Watson Squire sparred with his colleagues over federal infrastructure spending, arguing that sinking millions into the Columbia River served only Portland while neglecting the burgeoning commercial potential of Puget Sound.

    Mar 23, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

24. The Great Columbia Fish Rush

    When an electric railway culvert at Columbia flooded the flats, local residents turned the disaster into a spontaneous community harvest of salmon and trout.

    Nov 21, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerColumbia City, Seattle, King CountyStrange But True

25. 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.

    Jul 14, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerIlwaco, Pacific CountyFollow the Money

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