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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
32 stories matching ere
- The 'Rich Deed' That Wasn't: Snohomish’s Wild Gold Rush Hoax and the Community’s Reality Check
A sensational tale of a legendary gold mine in Snohomish captivated locals, but the paper quickly pivots to a sobering assessment of the lumber industry's financial struggles and the region's agricultural potential.
- The Day Seattle Woke Up: A Traveler’s Rave Review of the 'Metropolitan' Future
In July 1870, a San Francisco correspondent returns from a voyage down the coast and is stunned by the rapid transformation of his hometown into a booming commercial hub.
- Seattle’s First Fire Company: A Half-Hearted Start in a City That Needs It
In October 1876, Seattle’s citizens are debating the formation of a volunteer fire engine company. While some jeer at their 'small beginnings,' the paper argues that even a half-hearted effort is better than no defense against the city's greatest fear: fire.
- The Unlucky Fisherman of Seattle
A satirical poem from 1878 chronicles an angler who spends a week sitting by a local sawmill, only to become a living piece of landscape architecture for the local insect population.
- The Last Voyage of Arthur Phinney: A Fleet of Steamers Bids Farewell to a Pioneer
In June 1877, the death of Port Ludlow founder Arthur Phinney triggered an unprecedented maritime funeral procession on Puget Sound, uniting rival steamship lines and hundreds of mourners in a tribute to a man who championed labor and community.
- Billy Fife: Self-Taught Caricaturist of Frontier Seattle
A biography of Billy Fife, a sailor and self-taught caricaturist whose sharp wit and rare artistic skill captured Seattle's frontier life.
- The Morphine Abyss
A woman shares her harrowing descent into morphine addiction and her recovery at the Keeley Institute, offering a rare, personal testimony of 19th-century narcotic dependence.
- The Suffragist in the Hall: How One Woman’s Plea Shook Washington’s Constitutional Convention
In the sweltering heat of 1878, a delegation from Seattle petitioned the territorial convention for women's voting rights. Mrs. Dunaway was invited to speak, delivering an eloquent appeal that momentarily softened the hearts of the 'sage' delegates before the vote closed.
- The Enigma of the Moses Reservation
A critical look at the federal policy keeping prime Washington farmland locked away from development while the Indigenous people it was intended for remain elsewhere.
- The Tragic Silence of a Lost Girl
An editorial reflection on the double standard of morality that led to a young woman's death in the Snohomish County jail.
- The Vanishing Sidewalks: How Seattle’s Council Cleared the Streets of 'Obstructions'
In a bold move to modernize downtown, the City Council ordered the immediate removal of all fruit stands, bootblack benches, and candy vendors from the city's busiest thoroughfares. The result? A clash between civic order and the livelihoods of informal street merchants.
- The Ghost of Belltown and the Battle for the Ballot
In 1880, as Seattle’s population swelled, the newspaper sparred with shipping reports over the identity of a neighborhood that 'did not exist' and the urgent need for more polling stations.
- The Treacherous Eddies of Anacortes
A boating trip on the Skagit river turns into a desperate struggle for survival when a squall capsizes a local family.
- The Swamp That Was: How a Drainage Project Threatened to Reclaim King County’s Wetlands
In 1876, local farmers petitioned the county to drain the marshes between White and Black rivers, arguing that reclamation would boost public health and add millions to the region's wealth.
- The Timber Tax Trap: How Snohomish County’s Wealth Was Slipping Away
A local writer warns that mill companies are exploiting a flawed $2.50-per-acre tax assessment to monopolize land, leaving the county with debt and no court house while small loggers go bust.
- The Flyer Who Flew: How a Railway Agent’s Wine-Fueled Embezzlement Left Him Hiding in Victoria
J.R. Policy, former agent for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, vanished from Seattle after embezzling $1,300 to fund a life of luxury and a romance with a woman of ill repute.
- The City That Waited Too Long
A scathing editorial from 1880 chides Seattle’s civic leaders for their 'supine' failure to build the roads necessary to secure the region's economic future.
- A Thanksgiving Feast for Interlake
A local farmer recounts a heartwarming community surprise visit that turned a quiet workday into a Philharmonic Society jubilee.
- The Monster Canoe That Defeated a Donkey Engine
Judge James Swan's colossal Northwest canoe sat nine months on the wharf — until one determined shipping agent and a hundred willing hands hauled it aboard the Dakota for Philadelphia.
- The 'Social Curse' Argument: A Seattle Paper Builds the Case Against the Chinese
An 1883 editorial sounds the alarm over opium dens and 'heathen hordes,' casting Chinese immigrants as a menace to be legislated out of existence — the ideological groundwork for the expulsions to come.
- The Industrial Rebirth of Mukilteo
Despite the regional economic downturn, one investor is transforming the waterfront into a bustling industrial center.
- Inferno in the Olympics
Citizens gather on Church Hill in Port Angeles to watch a massive timber fire burning in the Olympic Mountains.
- The Unrelenting Doorbell: A Victorian Guide to Handling Salesmen
A satirical look at the day in the life of a beleaguered homemaker besieged by solicitors in 1870s Seattle.
- The Zephyr’s Relief Mission to the Snohomish Valley
After the mountain snows melted and triggered a devastating flood, the steamer Zephyr served as a critical lifeline to the isolated settlers of the Snohomish River valley.
- Man Overboard: A Desperate Rescue Off the Port Townsend Wharf
When a crewman is swept off the steamer North Pacific just after she leaves the dock, two boats race the heavy swell to pull him from the water alive.
Also about this, in other words
- The Dignity of the Oyster Bar
A young woman, destitute after her father's death, finds that the labor market is far more welcoming than her former social circle.
- The Man Who Sold Olympia's Eastside Like Hot Cakes
W. E. Sebree platted a tract on the Eastside, cleared nearly $40,000, toured Alaska and Europe — and came home to a town he hardly recognized.
- The Tragedy of ‘Pike Street Em’
A teenage girl faces state intervention after authorities decide she is 'running wild' on Seattle streets.
- A Deadly Shift at the Clark-Nickerson Mill
A young laborer is crushed to death by a falling load of timber, marking a tragic end to his shift in the Everett lumber yards.