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38 stories matching famin
- The Deep Freeze Coal Famine
With record-breaking snow and railroad blockades, Kennewick faces a chilling shortage of fuel and the potential return of oil lamps.
- The Potato Famine That Never Left the Sound
A century and a half ago, Seattle farmers lamented the mysterious collapse of the Puget Sound potato trade, marking the end of a boom that once promised regional prosperity.
- The Water Famine on Kenton Hill
Residents get water only about three hours a day while Seattle’s two council houses argue over pumps, sprinkling schedules and fire hose.
- When the Taps Ran Dry: Seattle's 1894 Water Famine
City council rations water as Renton Heights residents go without during a dry summer, passing a joint resolution to restrict use and hire an extra inspector.
- The Seattle Star’s Bold Prediction: Cable Cars, Real Estate Booms, and the 'Famine' of Housing
In March 1899, the city's leading paper championed new transit infrastructure as the key to unlocking a real estate boom, while simultaneously warning of a severe shortage of homes for newcomers.
- Twenty Inches of Snow Bring Seattle to a Standstill
A February 1893 blizzard blocks streetcars, freezes water pipes and threatens a coal famine, forcing schools to close and residents to melt snow for drinking water.
- The Judge Turned Off Tacoma’s Water
An unpaid condemnation judgment gave one man the power to shut down the city’s creeks—and the fashionable North End faced a water famine.
- A Car Famine at the Shingle Mills
A shortage of freight cars threatens to ruin small shingle manufacturers across the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern line.
- The Great Tacoma Brick Famine
A supply chain crisis at a Renton monopoly grinds Tacoma’s infrastructure projects to a halt.
- The Northwest's Silver Lining in the California Drought
As farmers in California face a 'famine year' due to extreme dry weather, Puget Sound agriculture stands to gain from a surge in demand and profit.
- The Great Seattle Rebuild: How the 1889 Fire Transformed the City
In the chaotic days following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city raced to replace charred ruins with brick, while grappling with the ethical dilemma of redirecting disaster relief funds intended for distant cities.
- When the Great Railroad Strike Reached Seattle
In July 1894 the Pullman boycott finally tied up the Lake Shore road in Seattle — local switchmen walked out in sympathy, and the company answered with firings, Winchester-armed deputies and a federal judge.
- The Pullman Strike Paralysis
As the American Railway Union strike sweeps the nation, railroads are frozen, federal troops are mobilizing, and the movement faces a mounting crisis.
- The Waterfront War of 1889
A bitter corporate grudge between local railroads leads to claims of monopolies, coal famines, and the violent destruction of property on the Seattle shoreline.
- 1893 Snowstorm Leaves City Short of Coal and Water
Deep snow blocks the rails and the rivers, leaving Seattle shivering and hungry as coal supplies vanish.
- Tacoma’s Water Crisis and the Million-Dollar 'Steal'
A court injunction cuts off the city's primary water source, prompting fears of pestilence and highlighting a suspicious, debt-laden municipal purchase.
- The Growing Pains of Everett
A nostalgic look at the early days of Everett, from the rough-and-tumble construction boom to the economic despair of the 'hard times' and the eventual rise of a working-class city.
- The Black Gold Rush of 1888
As Seattle's industry boomed, the city's hunger for coal outpaced its supply, triggering a frantic expansion of mines across the territory.
- The Brotherhood at a Standstill
When the Canadian Pacific Railway attempted to force workers to abandon their unions, the entire Pacific division walked off the job, halting freight and leaving the region’s supply chains in chaos.
- A House of Prayer for All the Nations
In 1892, Seattle's Congregation Ohaveth Sholom dedicated the first Jewish synagogue in Washington, filling the new sanctuary at Seventh and Seneca with Jews and Gentiles and with sermons that insisted the building must be more than stone and gold.
- 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.
- 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.
- Seattle’s Water Famine Blamed on Political Spoils System
A new city administration’s mass firing of experienced water department staff leads to a catastrophic loss of service during infrastructure upgrades.
- Seattle's Railroad Strike Goes Quiet—but the Unions Keep Fighting
As the national railroad boycott convulses the country, Seattle's yards stay quiet under troops and deputies while local unions back Debs, condemn violence, and negotiate food and livestock passage through boycotted lines.
- Robert Ingersoll’s Warning to the Washington Clerk
The famous orator and freethinker warns young men against the soul-crushing nature of government bureaucracy in Washington D.C.
Also about this, in other words
- The 'Fagin' System Comes to Lake Street
A bold gang of burglars, aided by a small child, strips a local family home of everything from baby shoes to Sunday dinner.
- A Fugitive's Reckoning
A French woman sues her partner for $15,000 after he allegedly abandoned her in America—while he sits in jail for human trafficking.