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1. Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America

   In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.

   Feb 24, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

2. 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

3. How Everett Got Its Harbor Money—by Telegrams and Western Nerve

   A seven-month lobbying campaign, a reluctant War Department and a $10,000 dredging appropriation: inside the fight to make Everett a deep-water port.

   Aug 27, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Gardner, Everett, Snohomish CountyBoom & Bust

4. Puget Sound's Fishing Future, Blocked by Ice and Freight

   A federal fisheries report praises the region's deep harbors and salmon runs, but explains why deep-sea halibut and cod fishing has failed to pay—and what it will take to change that.

   Apr 10, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

5. The Streets Seattle Was About to Give Away

   A city council committee votes to vacate waterfront streets south of Charles Street, and the city engineer warns that private tide-land leases could cut Seattle off from deep water.

   Apr 19, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

6. They Climbed Rainier First—and Slept in a Sulphur-Scented Ice Cave

   In 1870, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached Mount Rainier's summit after a brutal 10½-hour climb, then spent a freezing night beside volcanic steam vents.

   Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

7. 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.

   Feb 22, 1892The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust · City Hall

8. Six Men Climbed a Smoking Rainier in Midwinter

   When Mount Rainier seemed to erupt in 1894, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sent Maj. E. S. Ingraham and five companions up the Carbon River in deep winter to find out what was really happening.

   Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

9. Canoeing the Queets: Promise and Dispossession on the Olympic Peninsula

   An 1892 travelogue celebrates homesteaders in the Queets River valley while arguing that Native hunters should be confined to the reservation.

   Sep 4, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerQueets, Grays Harbor CountyExclusion & Resistance

10. The Navy's Giant Dry Dock Needed One More Appropriation

    A $200,000 federal appropriation rescued the Port Orchard dry dock from a year's delay, a rare bit of good news for Puget Sound's naval future.

    Mar 14, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPuget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Kitsap CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

11. A House Lifted Off Its Foundations and Floated Out Into the Lake

    After five days of rain, Lake Cushman rose to record heights — eight feet deep on the hotel floor — and carried one man's house bodily across the clearing into the water.

    Jan 18, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLake CushmanDisasters

12. A Gushing Future at Deep River?

    A discovery of high-grade petroleum gas in Washington state sparks dreams of a regional energy boom.

    Jun 10, 1903The Evening StatesmanDeep River, Wahkiakum CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

13. 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.

    Apr 14, 1877The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyBoom & Bust

14. The Industrial Remaking of Everett's Waterfront

    Federal authorities grant permission for a massive engineering project to wall off the Snohomish River delta, transforming a shallow tidal area into a deep-water harbor for industrial commerce.

    Apr 23, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerEverett, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

15. The Great River Flood of 1876

    As heavy rains inundate the Duwamish Valley, Seattle settlers and livestock struggle to survive the rising waters.

    Nov 28, 1876The Daily IntelligencerVan Asselt, Seattle, King CountyDisasters

16. The Great 'Deep Water' Lie: Seattle vs. Tacoma

    A leaked conversation between a Northern Pacific Railroad agent and a local editor reveals the cutthroat, manufactured rivalry over which city would become the true terminus for the wheat trade.

    Mar 17, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

17. The Canal That Would Make Seattle an Island

    In 1883, surveyors proposed locks and canals linking Lake Union and Lake Washington to tidewater—so coal could move by water and Seattle could 'practically stand on an island.'

    Aug 5, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerLake Union, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

18. Tragedy at the Spring: A Mother’s Drowning in Cathlamet

    A logger returns home after a week of work to find his wife dead in a two-foot deep spring and his three children alone in the snow.

    Feb 13, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerCathlamet, Wahkiakum CountyDisasters

19. Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise

    As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.

    Dec 31, 1891The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust · City Hall

20. The Struggle for Steamship Service at Oak Harbor

    When the captain refused to land because the water was too shallow, a determined community built their own way to the deep water.

    Jun 12, 1878The Northern StarOak Harbor, Island CountyBoom & Bust

21. A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking

    In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.

    Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

22. Diving to the Sunken Andelana

    A reporter joins a salvage diver to inspect the wreckage of the British ship Andelana, resting deep beneath the silt of the Puyallup River.

    Apr 21, 1904The Tacoma TimesPuyallup River, Tacoma, Pierce CountyGone Forever

23. The Struggle for Deep Water in Old Olympia

    Boosterism meets the reality of geography as a local entrepreneur attempts to build a deep-water wharf to secure Olympia's economic future.

    Jul 22, 1854Pioneer and DemocratOlympia, Thurston CountyBoom & Bust

24. Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets

    In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.

    Jul 24, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerQueets, Grays Harbor CountyStrange But True

25. Whatcom Wakes Up, and Every Town Wants the Railroad

    A Walla Walla correspondent surveys the 1883 Puget Sound boom: Whatcom's lots double, a wharf reaches deep water, and Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Fairhaven all claim the coming terminus.

    Aug 15, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerBellingham Bay, Bellingham, Whatcom CountyBoom & Bust

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