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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 10 |
| 1877 | 11 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 12 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1887 | 6 |
| 1888 | 7 |
| 1889 | 18 |
| 1890 | 4 |
| 1891 | 20 |
| 1892 | 24 |
| 1893 | 19 |
| 1894 | 18 |
| 1895 | 27 |
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 17 |
| 1904 | 14 |
| 1905 | 5 |
| 1908 | 3 |
| 1909 | 12 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 12 |
| 1917 | 3 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 3 |
284 stories matching flow
- A Midnight Ditch Plugging in the Snoqualmie Valley
A water dispute near Tolt (now Carnation) turned neighbor against neighbor, with accusations that O'Leary plugged a shared ditch under cover of darkness.
- The Brick and the Ballot: Wenatchee’s Fight for County Status
As the legislature carves out a new county from Chelan and Kittitas territories, local developers donate a brick courthouse to secure the seat of power in a town on the rise.
- Drilling for Water Under Washington's Dry Wheat Country
A federal geologist probes the desert east of the Columbia and the Big Bend wheatlands to see whether deep wells can water the dry interior — and finds pressure underground, but no free-flowing artesian springs.
- Walla Walla's Water War: Springs, a Bank, and a $250,000 Bond
In December 1903, an editorial backed Councilman Glasford's plan to use Thomas Springs rather than buy bank-owned ranch land or bond for Mill Creek water.
- A Gasser, a Picnic, and a Promise: Kennewick Bets on Oil and Gas
Drillers pause to case off 400 feet of water, 85 people picnic at the well, and a Yakima promoter promises a franchise — and maybe oil — by summer.
- The Rattlesnake Well's Hidden Energy
Engineers claim a natural gas well in the Rattlesnake district could power regional irrigation and heat every town from Ellensburg to Walla Walla.
- Tacoma Sues Water Company for $1 Million Over a Dry Promise
City officials say Patterson Springs delivered a fraction of the promised flow, making the costly gravity system practically worthless.
- The Water Under Walla Walla
As the city weighs Mill Creek against artesian wells, old-timers warn that riparian lawsuits could drown the project.
- The Dam That Shut Down Ballard
Fremont millers raised a timber barrier at Lake Union’s outlet. When Ballard’s mills lost their water, the fight went to court—after some talked of tearing it out by hand.
- The Engineer Who Tamed the Tides: Col. Wilson’s Blueprint for Snohomish’s Future
A master engineer presents a radical plan to dredge the Columbia and Willamette rivers, promising to unlock Seattle's potential by reshaping the very geography of the Pacific Northwest.
- A Rattlesnake Hills Gusher Sparks a Speculative Frenzy
A massive new natural gas strike in the Rattlesnake Hills has sent local stock prices soaring and raised hopes for a regional energy boom.
- An Artesian Spring Found Under the Occidental Block
Drilling beneath the heart of Seattle's business district reveals a massive, flowing water source.
- Tacoma’s Water Deal Has Forty Days Left
C. B. Talbot tells the city council his pure-water plan will be withdrawn unless it acts—iron and steel prices have already added $17,000 to the pipe bill.
- Hidden Artesian Spring Found Under Seattle Building
Workers drilling in the basement of the Sullivan building strike a fresh water supply that flows at a consistent daily rate.
- A Circular Saw Opened His Skull—and He Stayed Conscious
At the Stetson Post Mill on Commercial Street, engineer Horatio Stetson crawled under a rip-saw table to fix a belt. The saw caught his head, cutting through bone and into his brain, yet he never lost consciousness.
- The Battle Over Seattle’s Waterfront
Delegates at the constitutional convention debate the legality of old railroad land grants that once promised to privatize Elliott Bay.
- The Water Miracle in the Moxee
After expensive drilling, a new artesian well turns arid sagebrush into a potential oasis for Yakima settlers.
- Tacoma’s Costly Water Scandal
City officials discover that the expensive gravity-fed water system sold to the public is a fiction, sparking a search for accountability.
- Calispel Valley Ranchers Move to Dike Out the Pend Oreille
A petition for a new diking district would protect 11,000 acres from annual floods—and add thousands to Stevens County's tax rolls.
- The State Stakes Its Claim on the Shoreline
Washington Territory’s new constitution asserts public control over tide lands and navigable waters, setting a precedent for state ownership of the coast.
- The Great Tacoma Water Heist
City leaders uncover a massive discrepancy in the city's newly purchased water plant after boosters inflated the daily flow of local springs.
- The Lawyer Who Spoke 'Jargon' to Save a Man from Prison
In a Tacoma courtroom in the early days of Washington state, Attorney Frank Clark stunned federal prosecutors by abandoning legalese for Chinook Jargon, winning the acquittal of a poor logger accused of stealing timber.
- The Keeley Cure Comes to Olympia
Olympia's Keeley Institute promises release from drink, and the Tribune opens a discreet charity fund for patients who cannot pay.
- The Sheep Herders Who Burned a Half-Million Dollars to Scare Coyotes
For eighteen months a Rattlesnake Hills gas well blazed away at a herders' camp — until experts did the math and a three-cornered oil race began.
- The $15 Million Dream That Would Turn Horse Heaven Green
A consulting engineer told the irrigation district it could transform 300,000 dry acres with a vast Klickitat River storage and canal system—if voters backed an enormous bond issue and bought out private water-right claims.
Also about this, in other words
- A Roaring Flame in the Desert: Residents Hope for a Gas Boom
A visiting party from White Bluffs witnesses a dramatic demonstration of a natural gas well near the Yakima river, sparking local hopes for a new industrial future.
- A Farmer Dams a Ditch, and Neighbors Build a Dike
In the town of Tolt, a landowner’s waterway blockade turns into a muddy standoff, with farmers throwing up dikes to keep their fields from flooding.
- The Great Drain Struggle
Farmers from the Duwamish and Sammamish valleys rally to demand an expanded canal to solve recurring, devastating floods.
- The Dream of a Smokeless City
Boosterism meets industrial ambition as White Bluffs looks toward the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam.
- Fisticuffs at City Hall
A drainage ditch dispute erupts into a physical brawl between two men in the county commissioners' corridor.
- The Fight for Power on the Columbia
Settlers and a New York corporation clash in federal court over the future of the Priest Rapids dam project.
- The Invisible Milky Way in a Glass of Wine
A scientific lecture from 1878 explores the 'vital ether' and the microscopic life forces that drive fermentation.
- Farmers Take Matters Into Their Own Hands to Escape Floods
Tired of waiting for the county to act, valley farmers organize a private committee to drain Lake Washington floodwaters.