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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 62 |
| 1877 | 28 |
| 1878 | 19 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 7 |
| 1882 | 11 |
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| 1889 | 60 |
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| 1895 | 163 |
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 15 |
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| 1923 | 7 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1925 | 2 |
| 1928 | 2 |
1,133 stories matching fill
- State Supreme Court Upholds Lake Washington Canal Contract, Clearing the Way for Tide-Land Transformation
The Washington Supreme Court rules that the Lake Washington Waterway Company's contract to dig a canal and fill tide lands is constitutional, rejecting a landowner's challenge and affirming the state's power to remake the waterfront.
- 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.
- The $3 Million Scheme to Turn Seattle's Tide Flats into Dry Land
A private company plans to dredge the Duwamish and fill Elliott Bay's mudflats — paid not in cash but in land and liens — while St. Louis money waits to see the ground before it bets.
- 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.
- The Canal That Would Raise Salmon Bay—and Fill Its Marshes
Government engineers promise Seattle property owners that the Lake Washington ship canal will not strand them: excavated earth will fill submerged land and a public street will run alongside the right-of-way.
- San Francisco Capitalists Plan a New Waterway at Smith's Cove
A newly incorporated dredging company asks the state for the right to dig out and fill Seattle's northern tide flats, promising wharves, railroad yards and mills.
- Anything to Beat Stretch: The Whole County Ticket, Man by Man
The Sun walks Snohomish County's 1876 ballot from sheriff to coroner, and finds a whaling skipper turned pile-driver, a college-trained logger, and a sheriff whose enemies have a slogan of their own.
- The Shipworm Eating Seattle’s Waterfront
Wharf owners were spending a fortune fighting a saltwater pest. The fix: fill the tide flats, cut freshwater waterways, and make the harbor safe for pilings—and insurance.
- The Dredgers Were Coming: Seattle Builds Its Tide Flats
Engineers surveyed bulkheads, plotted fill, and prepared to bring two big dredgers to the Duwamish tide flats—while speculators rushed applications to buy the new land.
- The Dirt Will Fly: Seattle's Tide Flats Get a Date With the Dredge
A company backed by Eastern money says filling the Duwamish tide flats and excavating the waterway will begin within six weeks—if the canal right-of-way can be secured.
- Seattle Begins Filling Its Tide Flats
Surveyors lay the base line and piledrivers start a brush-and-earth bulkhead along Railroad Avenue, turning watery flats into buildable ground.
- A Railroad and a Tide-Flat Fight: Who Gets to Fill Smith's Cove?
Great Northern objected to a plan by W. F. Hayes and Frank Shay to fill the tide flats between Pike Street and Smith's Cove, setting up a hearing over who controls Seattle's shoreline.
- Seattle’s Tide-Flats Canal Clears the Court
The state Supreme Court upholds the Seattle Lake Washington Waterway Company’s contracts, leaving only a $500,000 subsidy before dredging begins.
- Private Money Wanted to Fill Smith's Cove—and Asked the City to Say Yes
A San Francisco syndicate lined up a state tide-land contract for May 7, with an injunction the only obvious obstacle.
- The Grand Plan to Reshape Seattle
A St. Louis investment group arrives to back Eugene Semple’s ambitious vision of a ship canal and the filling of the tide flats.
- The $7 Million Gamble to Dig Seattle’s Canal
St. Louis capitalists arrive with plans for the Lake Washington canal and tide-flat fill, promising a transformed city—if Seattle secures the rights-of-way.
- The Boy Who Vanished Into the Dirt
A contractor’s chilling account of a six-year-old who fell into an open trench and was buried alive—only to be dug out just in time.
- The Canal or Bust: Seattle Rallies to Buy Its Own Waterway
A packed crowd cheers a plan to hand St. Louis capitalists a public subsidy to dig the south canal and fill the tide flats of the lake — with a grand mass meeting called for the Armory.
- A City Turned Out to Bury George Heilbron
In 1895, Seattle’s governor, mayor, judges, businessmen and laborers filled the First Unitarian Church for the funeral of a civic leader who had helped build the young city.
- Building a Seawall to Save the Waterfront
A proposal to use excavated earth from new construction to extend the city's harbor, protecting the waterfront while expanding valuable land.
- The Great Carpetbagger Grievance
In 1888, Seattle residents fumed as the federal government ignored qualified locals to fill territorial offices with politically connected outsiders.
- The Tolt Ditch Dispute
A local landowner writes to the editor to clarify his role in filling a ditch, contradicting previous reports.
- The State Moved the Line, and the Waterfront Went With It
Tide-land owners at Port Angeles say they filled in the harbor in good faith, paid their money, and then learned the state had redrawn the meander line to swallow the most valuable frontage — and that the attorney general now refuses to issue their deeds.
- The Election of 1885: A Glimpse into Seattle's Growing Pains
As Seattle prepared for a municipal election in the summer of 1885, city officials published formal notices for a contest to fill leadership roles, highlighting a city governed by ward-based representation during a pivotal era of expansion.
- A Mountain of Coffins: Franklin Buries Its Miners
After a mine fire killed 37 men, the coal town of Franklin held a day of funerals—five graves at Black Diamond, three Italian miners on a hillside, and widows whose grief doctors feared would kill them.
Also about this, in other words
- The Great Fill: Seattle’s First Major Land Reclamation and the Fight for White Labor
In October 1876, workers are frantically raising Front Street to save it from the Duwamish River. The local press frames this massive public works project not just as engineering, but as a moral victory for 'white labor' over cheap Chinese competition.
- A Hundred Feet of Great Northern Trestle Slips Toward the River
Wet, frozen clay undermines the fill east of Newport, forcing railroad crews to wait for a pile driver before they can rebuild.
- The Desert Awakens in Kittitas
A massive engineering feat to bring water to 15,000 acres, bankrolled by local Ellensburg businessmen.
- A Debt Paid in Full
A Kennewick church celebrates financial independence by burning their mortgage document in a ceremonial act.
- The Housing Squeeze of 1889
With not a single vacant house in town, developer W.H. Kneeland is rushing to build four new double tenements.
- Farmers Take On the Pend Oreille With a Dike — and No Bonds
A railroad contracting firm agrees to build Calispel Diking District No. 1 for warrants instead of cash, giving 6,500 acres of bottomland one season to prove it can beat the high water.
- A Foul Nuisance in the Indian Addition
A rotting horse carcass left in the street sparks an urgent health complaint from a neighborhood near 34th and V.
- Consolidation in the 'Wet Goods' Trade
Saloon owners in Waitsburg pool their resources to eliminate competition as the local market for spirits cools.