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|---|---|
| 1860 | 1 |
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| 1884 | 2 |
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117 stories matching divert
- 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.
- The Canal That Could Freeze England: A Climate Warning from the Isthmus of Panama
In 1877, Seattle’s press warned that digging a canal through Central America might divert the Gulf Stream, plunging Europe into an ice age—a bizarre but prescient look at early environmental anxiety.
- The War for Power in the Pacific Northwest
A Boston-backed syndicate attempts to monopolize water rights and electricity, sparking a high-stakes legal battle with independent producer Charles H. Baker.
- The Great City Treasury Mystery
A skeptical newspaper accuses the Seattle city government of diverting public funds meant for the Lake Union sewer tunnel into private speculations.
- Ballard's Water Bonds Go to Court
A taxpayer sued to stop Ballard from paying $8,500 for a private waterworks plant he called worthless—money voters had approved to build the city's own artesian wells.
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- Walla Walla Weighs Water Rights Against Costly Lawsuits
A legal dispute over riparian rights forces the city to weigh the cost of a new gravity system against the risk of massive damages.
- An Ecological Disaster on Pine Creek
Local farmers find hundreds of pounds of dead trout after a creek is diverted into an irrigation ditch.
- Floodwaters Threaten the County Farm
Spring flooding on the Duwamish River forces the county to intervene as a private sawmill's boom logs threaten to divert the current into public land.
- McMillan on the Brink of Washing Away
A farmer appeals to commissioners as a diverted river threatens to swallow his town.
- The Grand Coulee Canal Dream
A bold proposal to divert the Columbia River into the Grand Coulee to irrigate millions of acres of desert land.
- The Great Elma Bank Heist: Fire as a Distraction
Seven masked bandits robbed the Elma bank of $3,500 on Saturday night, using a strategically timed arson attack on the local school gymnasium to draw police and citizens away from the scene.
- The Great Mountain Road Debate of 1877
As Seattle dreamed of a transcontinental railroad, settlers in the Kittitas Valley argued that a simple wagon road was the true key to their economic survival.
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- A Desperate Corral Rescue
A husband is gored by a bull near his home, leading to a harrowing, multi-generational effort to save his life.
- The Great Pend Oreille Water Grab
A massive water rights filing for the Pend Oreille River has sparked intense debate over the feasibility of diverting water to the Quincy flats.
- The Great Seattle Tide-Land Grab
Powerful corporate interests are organizing to seize Seattle’s valuable waterfront, leaving citizens and commerce at the mercy of speculators.
- The River That Could Drown a Valley
A brewing legal and ecological battle in the White River valley pits farmers against a railway company, as shifting waters threaten to swallow millions in property.
- Minority Stockholders Accuse Northern Pacific of Rail Line Sabotage
Investors in the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway file suit, alleging the Northern Pacific intentionally sabotaged the local line to consolidate control and destroy shareholder value.
- The Northern Pacific Railroad's Shadowy Claim on Puyallup Land
A railroad attorney hints at a complex legal scheme to extract funds from the Puyallup reservation, sparking local debates over land ownership.
- The School Board's Hidden Books
A citizen's attempt to audit the Seattle Board of Education sparks a tense confrontation over transparency and the fear of a local 'poorhouse scandal.'
- The Star Chamber Water Loan Scandal
Tacoma city officials met behind locked doors to authorize the use of water extension funds for speculative warrant purchases, sparking threats of injunctions.
- The Railroad Map That Erased Seattle
Northern Pacific's latest map omits two under-construction Puget Sound lines and reduces Seattle to a dot. The Post suspects a land-selling scheme behind the silence.
- The Spokane Relief Scandal
Accusations emerge that funds meant for fire victims were diverted to municipal infrastructure projects.
- The Presidential Ambitions of Governor Laughton
Critics allege that a $50,000 geological survey appropriation is being used to fund a political vanity project.
Also about this, in other words
- A Crew Called the Iona Unseaworthy. The Cutter Called It Mutiny.
Before the Italian bark Iona could leave Port Townsend, its sailors refused to sail. A survey said the ship was sound; a revenue cutter's officer put the men in irons and warned them of a mutiny trial.
- Redirecting the River: Reclaiming the Stuck Valley
Pierce County engineers cut a new channel through the Stuck River to drain 2,000 acres of farmland and end the cycle of sand-choked floods.
- The Deaf Dodge
A local drunkard tries to outsmart a judge by faking deafness, only to be tripped up by the prospect of a free drink.
- A Handcar on the Trestle, a Train Around the Curve
Calhoun's crew was sent east of Spokane Falls to stand by a switch for the excursion trains. A belated passenger train rounded a curve onto their handcar; the men jumped, but a Chinese laborer was severely injured.
- The North Bend Ducking Stool
When a man terrorized his family during a drunken rampage, his neighbors took justice into their own hands with an icy river dip.
- The Professor’s High-Rolling Farewell
A lodge trustee embezzles thousands and leaves the local treasury empty for a life of excess on Washington Street.
- The Senate’s Betrayal: A Treaty That Gave Away Seattle’s Future
A scathing Senate report warns that the new fisheries treaty with Britain surrenders American fishing rights and invites foreign control over Pacific waters.
- Two Men Confess to Burning a Northern Pacific Bridge Near Thorp
Charles Matson and John Goes plead guilty to arson on the railroad; John Green denies the charge as the court postpones sentencing.