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 |
|---|---|
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 10 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 6 |
| 1892 | 11 |
| 1893 | 7 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 11 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1904 | 6 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 4 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1922 | 1 |
96 stories matching crawl
- Ten Inmates Crawl Through City Jail Roof
A dozen prisoners rip the roof off the city jail, leading to a night of escapes, returns for more whiskey, and public mockery of the facility.
- The Thief Who Crawled into a Hole
A petty shoplifting chase leads to an absurd standoff underneath a downtown storefront.
- The Dynamite of Gilman: A Murderous Grudge Ends in Lynching
In a fit of rage over a domestic dispute, Albert Schaeffer blew up his neighbor's home in Gilman, killing three people. The town’s response was swift and brutal.
- A Circular Saw Opened His Skull—and He Stayed Conscious
At the Stetson Post Mill on Commercial Street, engineer Horatio Stetson crawled under a rip-saw table to fix a belt. The saw caught his head, cutting through bone and into his brain, yet he never lost consciousness.
- The Stowaway with Seventeen Guns
A Victoria burglar thought he’d outsmarted police by hiding between decks on the steamer *Premier*, but a sharp-eyed customs officer at the Seattle dock caught him red-handed—and found his loot.
- The Mud of the Highlands
Melting snows leave Kennewick rural routes impassable, forcing students to crawl over dangerous flumes to get home.
- A Narrow Escape at the Shilshole Crossing
A switch engine slams into a team on Shilshole Avenue, killing a horse and nearly killing the driver—who crawled out thanks to a broken wagon tongue.
- The Man Who Slept in a Law Office Window
A destitute former resident of Chimacum is found crawling into a Seattle law office window, claiming he has nowhere else to go.
- A Gruesome Case of Ear Trouble
A logger near Ladysmith undergoes a painful ordeal when a fly turns his ear into a nursery.
- The Haunted Theater of Seattle: A Superstition of 1876
A group of locals at the Occidental Hotel exchange tales of theater lore, specifically the peculiar story of a spider that allegedly predicted the success of a New York stage house for ten consecutive seasons.
- Young Hunter Survives Accidental Shooting
Thirteen-year-old Eric Waldorf recovers after a hunting mishap while crawling through a fence.
- Firestorms Ravage the Snoqualmie and Skykomish Valleys
A massive wildfire has destroyed timber, bridges, and the entire settlement of Wellington, forcing settlers to flee for their lives.
- 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.
- Twenty-Three Miners Died in a Nearly Undamaged Mine
Inspector Edmunds told a Seattle paper that the Blue Canyon explosion was one of the strangest disasters he had ever seen: the mine was barely damaged, yet 23 men were dead, most killed by concussion and gas.
- A Dying Declaration on South Second Street
A Chinese resident is fatally stabbed near the Standard Theater, and his accusation sends a railroad laborer to the county jail.
- Ice Breaks: Two Young Men Drown in Snohomish River Tragedy
Horace Low and Arthur Butt, employees of the local newspaper office, lost their lives after ice gave way beneath them while skating on the river.
- A Mother's Desperation in Spokane
After a family quarrel and a daughter's night away, Mrs. Jacob Schoder swallowed carbolic acid; her 18-year-old daughter Hattie found her and told the story from St. Luke's Hospital.
- A Saloonkeeper's .32 Ends a Masked Raid on Old Town
Three masked men with Winchester rifles walked into the Dougherty & Wilcox saloon at eleven o'clock Saturday night. One of them never walked out.
- The Midnight Hold-Up That Turned Deadly
A trio of armed men terrorized downtown saloons until a victim fought back with a shotgun, leaving one assailant near death.
- The Drunken Highway Shooting Near Kent
A senseless act of violence on a flooded country road leaves a stranger fighting for his life in a Seattle hospital.
- A Lonely Death in a Seattle Rooming House
A woman living in poverty is found dead in a prayerful posture, leaving behind only a small dog and unpaid rent.
- The Buckeye Went Down in a Gale—and One Passenger Almost Made It
The steamer Buckeye broke up in the Salish Sea; a rescued stockman described how shifting cattle, a swamped lifeboat, and freezing water killed H. Kautzman within sight of help.
- Inside the 'Hell Hole': Life for the Unemployed in 1893
An anonymous laborer provides a harrowing account of the brutal conditions and daily struggle for survival in Seattle's winter saloons.
- The Bread and Butter Vote: How the Custom House Ring Rigged Port Townsend Politics
In a stunning display of patronage politics in September 1876, federal employees in Port Townsend marched in lockstep to defeat local opposition, proving that government jobs were still the ultimate political currency.
- The Great Escape: Two Prisoners Vanish from Seattle’s Basement Jail
In a display of audacity and desperation, two men held on smuggling and liquor charges crawled through a torn-off board in a water closet to flee the U.S. Marshal’s improvised prison beneath the Clancy Building.
Also about this, in other words
- The Swarm That Stalled the Trains
A plague of army worms in a Washington swamp grew so thick they brought a locomotive to a grinding, slippery halt.
- Smuggling Silks in His Trousers
A crew member of the steamship Olympia attempts to bypass customs, revealing the era's aggressive enforcement against Chinese laborers.
- A Dangerous Fall for a Local Utility Manager
George Turner, the local manager for the Priest Rapids Light & Power Company, is recovering in a Pasco hospital after a severe fall from a transmission pole.
- The Cricket Runs Aground
A steamer at Olympia drifts from its moorings and is submerged by the rising tide.
- The Midnight Hazard on Front Street
A pedestrian falls into an open trench, highlighting the lack of basic safety measures in a growing, construction-heavy Seattle.
- The Human Spider of Occidental Square
A sailor scaled a 135-foot flagpole in downtown Seattle to keep the city’s Fourth of July celebrations on schedule.
- Manager Seriously Injured in Fall from Power Line
Local utility manager suffers broken leg and strained back in 20-foot tumble from transmission pole.
- A Wet Rope, a Live Wire, and a Boy on a Bricklaying Crew
Reed Crews was coming down from a tin roof when a wet rope touched a power line. The accident left him dying and exposed the everyday lethality of 1909 work.