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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 4 |
| 1858 | 4 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 4 |
| 1861 | 6 |
| 1862 | 13 |
| 1863 | 14 |
| 1864 | 4 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 22 |
| 1876 | 84 |
| 1877 | 46 |
| 1878 | 71 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 16 |
| 1882 | 17 |
| 1883 | 62 |
| 1884 | 29 |
| 1885 | 59 |
| 1886 | 26 |
| 1887 | 49 |
| 1888 | 29 |
| 1889 | 64 |
| 1890 | 19 |
| 1891 | 80 |
| 1892 | 113 |
| 1893 | 91 |
| 1894 | 85 |
| 1895 | 32 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 26 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 68 |
| 1904 | 34 |
| 1905 | 6 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 49 |
| 1910 | 10 |
| 1911 | 12 |
| 1912 | 9 |
| 1914 | 20 |
| 1915 | 14 |
| 1916 | 40 |
| 1917 | 16 |
| 1918 | 3 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 2 |
| 1923 | 8 |
| 1924 | 6 |
| 1925 | 1 |
1,384 stories matching dollar
- The Klondike Gold Rush Riches Arrive in Seattle
As the ship Humboldt docks, a massive influx of gold and weary prospectors pours into the city, fueling local speculation and excitement.
- The Tax Swindle: How Seattle’s Printer Defrauded His Neighbors
In 1872, the publisher of the *Puget Sound Dispatch* exposed a collusive scheme between local tax collectors and a rival newspaper to overcharge delinquent taxpayers for legal notices, sparking a bitter war of words in the territorial press.
- The Church Fair Grind: A Young Man’s Ordeal with Charity and Cake
In a tale of social pressure and predatory fundraising, one Seattleite recounts his harrowing escape from a church bazaar where 'charity' meant forced purchases, fake fortunes, and extortionate flower prices.
- The Forgotten Soldiers: A Post-War Reckoning
Decades after the Civil War, Snohomish's local paper draws a bitter parallel between the veterans who fought to 'free the negro' and the rising tide of impoverished, displaced laborers struggling for survival in 1877.
- The True Cost of a Found Five-Dollar Gold Piece
A local man's sudden windfall leads to a cautionary tale of impulsive spending that quickly outstripped his luck.
- The Sound's Freight Wars
Seattle merchants sound the alarm as steamboat companies hit the city with discriminatory freight rates that favor Tacoma and Tumwater.
- The Boom's Bill Comes Due: Chehalis County Taxpayers Foot the Cost
An Aberdeen editor tallies a quarter-million-dollar tax burden and blames real-estate speculators who promoted 'fool improvements' during the boom, then slipped out of paying.
- The 1878 Case for Buying the Dip in Seattle Real Estate
An editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer advises that despite hard times, the current low prices of labor and building materials make it the perfect time for working families to secure their own homes.
- Exploiting Labor at Grays Harbor
A scathing report reveals how labor contractors are cheating workers with predatory 'discounts,' abysmal living conditions, and wage theft on harbor improvement projects.
- The Tax Collector’s Secret: How Seattle Officials Hid Debts to Profit from Advertising
A local newspaper exposes a scheme where the School District collector withheld tax information, forcing taxpayers to pay exorbitant advertising fees to clear liens they didn't know existed.
- Seattle’s Tinderbox: A Warning from the Ashes of Reno
As a massive fire ravages Nevada, this Seattle editor sounds the alarm over the city’s wooden buildings and exorbitant insurance costs, urging brick construction before disaster strikes.
- The $10 Million Dream to Turn Olympia Into the Hub of the Northwest
J. R. Chaplin pitched a grand Olympia Improvement Company and a ship canal from Black Lake through the Chehalis to Grays Harbor—enough, he promised, to leave Seattle, Tacoma and Portland behind.
- The School District Spending Scandal
A local newspaper accuses the school board of backroom deals and misappropriating thousands of dollars in a heating system contract.
- The Great Potato Swindle on the Wishkah
A logger attempts to pull a fast one on a local rancher, leading to a heated riverboat confrontation over the weight of seven sacks of spuds.
- The Failed Toothpick Empire of Merrihew
A classic tale of a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong, where a man's attempt to corner the national market on thorns turned his farmland into an impassable fortress.
- The Country Estate as Medicine: Why Seattle’s Elite Are Buying Farms to Save Their Nerves
A satirical essay in the Daily Intelligencer argues that small country plots are not financial investments, but essential health remedies for city professionals suffering from 'trade winds' and nervous exhaustion.
- Seattle’s 'Reform' Government Promised Clean Streets and Low Taxes. Two Years Later, the Bill Came Due.
A furious 1894 editorial accuses the Democratic city administration of breaking every campaign promise—keeping Whitechapel open, protecting gambling, and cutting day laborers while salaried officials kept their pay.
- The Mine That Wasn’t? A Captain Denies a Half-Million-Dollar Gold Swindle
An English capitalist’s suit against Alaska millionaires turned a Port Townsend sailing into a Pacific Coast sensation, with charges of swapped ore, gold-soaked drill cores, and a forceful denial from Capt. James Carroll.
- The Sheriff’s Hammer: Snohomish’s Last Stand Against the 'Nuisance'
In March 1877, Judge J.R. Lewis and the local Grand Jury launched a coordinated assault on vice, seizing brothels and fining operators, while simultaneously exposing corruption in county bonds.
- The Disappearing Contractor of Madison Street
A Seattle infrastructure project hits a snag when the lead contractor vanishes with thousands of dollars in city funds, leaving his bondsmen to face the bill.
- Corruption and Starvation in the Indian Service
Local creditors left unpaid while thousands of dollars in federal funds disappear under the Superintendent's watch.
- The Struggle for the Swinomish Slough
While Washington Territory languished without federal infrastructure support, local steamboat operators were left to navigate a dangerous, shifting channel entirely on their own dime.
- Down the Dark Drift: A Tour of Seattle’s Coal Mines
In December 1876, a reporter takes readers on an arduous journey from Lake Union to Newcastle to witness the grueling labor and industrial scale of Puget Sound's most vital industry.
- The City’s ‘Losings-Bank’: A Temperance Sermon on Economic Ruin
In an 1881 sermon at Plymouth Church, a local minister argues that Seattle’s rampant saloon culture—not market forces—is the primary engine of financial instability.
- The High Cost of Keeping Warm in Pioneer Seattle
As Seattle's population climbed toward 45,000 in 1880, local leaders sounded the alarm on the soaring price of firewood and looked to the untapped coal mines of the region for a heating revolution.
Also about this, in other words
- The Unrest of the American Dollar
A 1880 editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer examines the nation's obsession with wealth accumulation and its hidden costs to the soul of a young nation.
- The Great Greenback Tug-of-War
A Seattle reader squares off against national editors over the power of the government to define the value of money itself.
- The Mystery of the Counterfeit Dollar
A single bill makes its way through the local economy, settling debts until it hits the bank, a counterfeit, and finally, the collection plate.
- The Silver Dollar Crusade: Seattle’s Local Echo of a National Money War
While the nation debates bimetallism and Indian Wars, Washington Territory officials in Seattle are quietly preparing for a federal commission that could reshape the region's economy.
- Gambling in the 'Chicago Dollar Store'
A call for city officials to shutter a fraudulent lottery operating in a Yesler building.