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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 9 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 14 |
| 1891 | 11 |
| 1892 | 20 |
| 1893 | 9 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 21 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 7 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 1 |
150 stories matching freeli
- The Cowcatcher Lifted Her Into the Air, and Then They Took Her Home
An elderly Native woman walking the Northern Pacific tracks below town is swept up by the overland express — and walks away from it, carried off by her mother and son.
- Greenbacks Earn Trust in Olympia
Citizens freely exchange Treasury notes for gold at par, signaling local faith in the Union cause.
- Fire Damp and Twenty-Three Dead at Blue Canyon
A gas explosion in a new coal working near Lake Whatcom kills twenty-three miners and forces a state inspection into what the company knew about the mine’s ventilation.
- The Dynamite Fiend of Oilman: A Lynch Mob’s Tragic Mistake
When a violent feud in King County’s coal fields ended in a massacre, the community turned to vigilante justice. But when they hanged the wrong man, the real killer walked free.
- The Shadow Over Seattle: A Councilman’s Scathing Exposé of Vice
In 1891, a fiery letter from C. B. Bagley to the Post-Intelligencer accused the mayor and police chief of being puppets to the city’s most notorious gamblers and saloon-keepers.
- The Effigy in the Pine Tree
Charles Gloystein crossed Spokane County's Populists and woke to find himself hanged in straw. Then he vanished.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- The Courthouse War
A fierce battle between a judge and county officials leads to a standoff, a jail sentence, and a wild threat to tear down the jailhouse to free the prisoner.
- A Wife's Last Resort: Abused Woman Kills Husband in Kittitas County
After years of beatings, a Roslyn rancher's wife shoots him dead; neighbors say it was justified.
- A Midnight Knock, a Hidden Fortune, and a Brutal Beating on Vashon Island
Two men demand an old rancher's money, bind and club him, then ransack his cabin for a cache of cash. Seattle police arrest a suspect—and then the victim's wife.
- A Gunfighter Imported for a Seattle Primary
Sheriff Woolery and saloon-world fixer John Considine tried to seize a First Ward Republican primary—and brought a jailed gambler along to help.
- Marriage at the Center of an Exclusion Crisis
A Seattle couple's travel plans are halted by the Chinese Restriction Act, sparking a legal struggle for their right to move freely.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- A Wooden Pistol Emptied the King County Jail
Thomas Blanck, awaiting appeal for murder, locked the night jailer in a cell and walked out with eight other prisoners—armed with a black wooden fake.
- A Mother on the Dock: Four Shots for the Man Who Ruined Her Daughter
Mrs. Gertrude Robb waited at Seattle's Coleman Dock for the steamer Telegraph, called her daughter's seducer by name, and emptied a revolver into him. Then she handed the gun to a bystander and waited for the police.
- The Great Rabbit Drive: Blood, Snow, and the Hunt for Sport in Yakima
Hundreds of men, boys, and ladies converged on a four-mile line to corral hundreds of jackrabbits into a killing field, resulting in more broken bones than dead rabbits.
- The Name Debate: Why Seattle Nearly Became 'Tacoma'
When an Eastern Senator tried to force a name change on the future state, the people of the Washington Territory pushed back with fierce regional pride.
- The Shadowy Resort on the Reservation
Neighbors allege a dance hall and illicit bar near Bay Street are a hub for vice, liquor sales to minors, and persistent noise, while city officials look the other way.
- The Banker's Scandalous Opera Alley Spree
A Coupeville bank cashier’s disappearance turns into a public disgrace as reports emerge of his lavish debauchery in Tacoma’s red-light district.
- The Black Miners Who Came to Save Roslyn
In February 1885, a special train carrying 300 African American laborers from the East Coast arrived in Washington Territory to break a coal strike. Their arrival ended weeks of unrest and restored order to the struggling mining town.
- The Price of Company Towns
A reporter sneaks into a Washington logging camp to expose how the company store system trapped workers in a cycle of debt and misery.
- Tragedy on the Duwamish River
A deadly brawl among Duwamish tribal members following a day of heavy drinking leads to a hunt for justice and a call for a crackdown on illegal liquor.
- The Great 'Old Dominion' Dynamite Fire
When an iconic hotel caught fire in a Washington town, desperate residents turned to explosives to save the rest of the block from total destruction.
- Tacoma’s Floating Border: 142 Chinese Passengers Ordered Back Aboard the Mogul
A Northern Pacific steamer brought 242 Chinese travelers to Tacoma in 1893. Collector Wesson admitted 100, stretched a World’s Fair loophole for 32 actors, and ordered the rest deported—while smugglers counted the cost.
- Violent Ambush in Haller City
A brutal altercation between two men at a local dance leaves a bartender fighting for his life.