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 |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1876 | 15 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 7 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 21 |
| 1884 | 7 |
| 1885 | 10 |
| 1886 | 9 |
| 1887 | 4 |
| 1888 | 4 |
| 1889 | 22 |
| 1890 | 7 |
| 1891 | 14 |
| 1892 | 47 |
| 1893 | 31 |
| 1894 | 24 |
| 1895 | 49 |
| 1898 | 7 |
| 1899 | 8 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1903 | 53 |
| 1904 | 31 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 29 |
| 1909 | 32 |
| 1910 | 10 |
| 1914 | 2 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 6 |
| 1917 | 2 |
| 1918 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 2 |
| 1925 | 1 |
492 stories matching creek
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- A Gold Rush Above the Snow Line
A Spokane traveler reports from the new Methow Valley mining camps, where promoters are laying out towns, charging $3.50 a day for trail work, and warning poor men to stay away until the snow melts.
- The Fight Over the Road Through the Cascades
A state wagon-road bill sets Cascade Pass against Slate Creek, with mining claims, Lake Chelan freight and a $33,000 price tag hanging in the balance.
- The Gold in Swauk Creek — and the Railroad That Wanted the Ground Under It
Miners in Kittitas County had quietly pulled a fortune in placer gold from Swauk Creek for over a decade. When the Northern Pacific moved to patent the land, they finally went public with the numbers.
- The Marsh That Could Feed a City: Snohomish’s Hidden Goldmine
A detailed survey of the vast wetlands between Snohomish and the Skykomish River reveals thousands of acres of fertile land, drained by new ditches and accessible by scow, waiting for developers to turn swamp into wealth.
- A City Accused of Stealing Its Water by Night
A rancher with an injunction, a mayor at the end of his borrowing power, and a reservoir that empties at dusk and fills by dawn: Tacoma's fight over Clover Creek water becomes a standoff between the city and the man who owns the creek.
- Typhoid Outbreak Traced to Wapato Creek Dairies
City and state health officials issue urgent sanitation ultimatum to local dairymen after tracing typhoid fever cases to contaminated creek water.
- The Slate Creek Boom Shrinks to 500 Miners
Two Fairhaven men return from the North Cascades with word that the stampede to Slate Creek was far smaller than reported — and that snow, unpaid bonds, and a half-built trail are cooling the rush.
- New Rural Free Delivery Route Established
Postal service finally reaches residents of the Mill Creek and Russell Creek neighborhoods after months of delays.
- Tacoma's Water Was Cut Off by a Court Order—and the City Went Looking for Wells
A judge holds Tacoma officials in contempt for ignoring an injunction over Clover and Spanaway creeks, forcing the city to shut off a major source and scramble for gulch water and Northern Pacific wells.
- An Ecological Disaster on Pine Creek
Local farmers find hundreds of pounds of dead trout after a creek is diverted into an irrigation ditch.
- The Water Under Walla Walla
As the city weighs Mill Creek against artesian wells, old-timers warn that riparian lawsuits could drown the project.
- Stevens County Votes Itself Dry, Two to One
On November 9, 1909, the precincts outside every incorporated town in Stevens County went to the polls on a single question — liquor or no liquor — and closed the saloons by 1,419 votes to 814.
- A Sinking Buggy, a Borrowed Team, and a Reservation About to Open
In 1892 a newspaperman packed his wife and infant into a rickety buggy to cross the soon-to-open Colville Reservation, fording the Kettle River and leaning on Native families along the way.
- A Civil Engineer's $200,000 Plan to Drain the Calispel Valley
A Newport civil engineer proposes canals, dikes and lock gates to reclaim a lake bed, irrigate the gravel slopes and stop the Pend Oreille from swallowing the valley's farms.
- Tacoma’s Water Crisis: Livestock and Ducks Contaminating the City's Supply
While citizens face water shortages and lawn sprinkling bans, city officials grapple with a public health dilemma where contaminated surface water is routinely mixed with pure well water.
- Two Plans, One Spring, and a $25,000 Holdup
Walla Walla's council will let voters choose between a $191,000 pipeline up Mill Creek and a cheaper gravity system at Thomas Springs — but the editor suspects a land speculation scheme is baked into the ballot question.
- Search Continues for Missing Skamokawa Boy
A young child is presumed drowned after wandering near the rain-swollen Skamokawa Creek.
- The Senate Ratifies the Treaties That Remade the Northwest
Ratified in 1859, the 1855 treaties with tribes across Oregon and Washington promised annuities, schools and mills while ceding millions of acres to settlement.
- The Coal Creek Massacre: A Coroner’s Inquest into the Battle Between Knights of Labor and Mine Owners
In January 1890, Seattle Sheriff Cochrane deployed militia to Newcastle to suppress a miners' strike. When a riot erupted at Coal Creek, one man was killed and ten arrested. The subsequent coroner's inquest revealed a chaotic scene where union men claimed self-defense against armed mine owners, while the sheriff dismissed the Knights of Labor as 'too excitable.'
- The Muck in Our Pipes
A two-day investigation reveals that Tacoma’s municipal water supply, sourced from Clover Creek, is contaminated by livestock waste and agricultural runoff.
- Four Sections Burn Along the Pend Oreille
A week-long blaze near Ruby Creek is finally checked, leaving ranchers, timber and a county bridge in ashes—and one firefighter carried ten miles to safety.
- Walla Walla's Water War: Springs, a Bank, and a $250,000 Bond
In December 1903, an editorial backed Councilman Glasford's plan to use Thomas Springs rather than buy bank-owned ranch land or bond for Mill Creek water.
- A Father's Vengeance: The Killing of the Muckleshoot Medicine Man
When three of Jerry Domnick's children died under Jim Bouchitt's care, the grieving father took a rifle into the woods — and the healer was found buried under a log near Soos Creek.
- A Gold Rush Camp Called Ives Booms at the Mouth of the Methow
A mining promoter describes a brand-new Okanogan County town of 400 souls, a five-stamp mill running night and day, and a valley filling with prospectors.
Also about this, in other words
- The Unsanitary Mystery of Wilson Creek
Town residents are fouling the local water supply by dumping horse carcasses near the public school.
- The Battle for Sullivan Creek
A high-stakes legal fight over water rights and industrial development reveals the tension between speculative land-holding and the growth of the new town of Metaline.
- The Tragedy at Cold Creek
An immigrant homesteader takes his own life after a grueling and unsuccessful struggle to find water on his property.
- The Battle for the LeClerc Creek Basin
Settlers face off against the U.S. Forest Service in a high-stakes legal fight over homestead patents and timber rights.
- A Homesteader’s Cattle, a Neighbor’s Feed, and Sick Children
A LeClerc Creek homesteader says a neighbor poisoned his cattle, then his children fell ill after drinking the milk.
- A Frontier Shooting at Martin Creek
A local woman, intoxicated and armed, wounds a bartender in a bizarre altercation.
- The Last Acreage Near the Creek
An 1877 real estate notice offers fertile bottom land near Snohomish, marking the transition from homesteading to organized development.
- The Desert Awakens in Kittitas
A massive engineering feat to bring water to 15,000 acres, bankrolled by local Ellensburg businessmen.