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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 8 |
| 1893 | 8 |
| 1894 | 4 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1918 | 1 |
38 stories matching fruitless
- Anti-Allen Dark Horse Scheme Fails in Olympia
While anti-Allen forces scramble for a candidate, the state legislature remains paralyzed by 'dark horse' rumors and fabricated desertions.
- Denied Shelter at the Hospital, A Woman Gives Birth in a Police Station
A tragic case of medical red tape and bureaucratic cruelty exposes the lack of a social safety net in 1893 Seattle.
- The Body in the Box: A Political Murder Haunts Spokane County
Charles F. Gloystein crossed the Freeman's Protective Silver Federation and disappeared. Now his neighbors are offering a $1,000 reward—not for a killer, but for the body.
- A Midnight Knock, a Bloody Hat, and the Farmer Who Vanished
Charles Gloystein joined an oath-bound farmers’ society near Mica, tried to leave, and disappeared. A bloody hat was all searchers found.
- Smelter Boarding House Reduced to Ash After Brawl
A drunken dispute between boarders turned into an explosive inferno at the smelter district, leaving residents fleeing for their lives.
- The City Hall Bond Brawl
Aberdeen city officials trade barbs over reckless boom spending and the city’s mounting debt crisis.
- The Snoqualmie Mill Lost to Fire
A major industrial site, recently shuttered by financial woes, is destroyed by a blaze just as it was being prepared for operation.
- The Mother, The Child, and The Purser’s Zeal
A desperate mother is arrested in Seattle after a daring escape from the hospital, exposing the cruelty of rigid legal intervention in the 1870s.
- County Employees Go Without Pay in Montesano
Clerks for Chehalis County officers face a financial crisis as the local government runs out of money and refuses to pay salaries.
- The Tragedy on Howard Street
A household servant disappears after a toddler dies from arsenic poisoning.
- The Boss is Out: Tacoma Republicans Dump the Street Railway Henchman
In a rapid-fire city convention at the Lyceum Theater, Mayor Lewis D. Campbell secured his renomination while voters signaled a break from the city's powerful streetcar monopoly.
- Fatal Lumber Mill Accident Claims Life of Tacoma Worker
A workplace tragedy at the St. Paul mill leaves one man dead and another facing life-altering injuries.
- The Last Letter From Everett: A Young Printer Vanishes on the Road to Spokane
Elmer H. Rogers told his parents he was headed for Spokane. He never arrived, and his family feared he was killed trying to ride the rails between Seattle and the inland city.
- The Struggle for Rail Regulation
Washington's constitutional convention wrestles with whether to empower a commission to oversee railroad giants.
- A Farmer Vanished Near Mica, and His Neighbors Blamed a Populist 'Shotgun Club'
Charles F. Glovstein disappeared from his Spokane County farm on July 28, 1894. Republicans called it political murder; the governor could offer only $1,000 for answers, and a secret 'protective association' was said to hold its members for life.
- A Gold Rush Romance in the Shadow of the Mines
In the rugged camps of the 1859 gold rush, a pair of lovers find their devotion tested by the harsh realities of frontier life and the relentless pursuit of fortune.
- A Boiler Explosion Near Mukilteo Kills Two Railroad Men
The Great Northern’s southbound “Owl” wrecked when its locomotive boiler burst, throwing the engineer into Puget Sound and leaving the fireman missing.
- The Tragedy of a Log in Lake Washington
After a day of fruitless searching, a grappling hook snagged a log that held a secret—the body of a missing 11-year-old boy.
- A Chaotic Brawl in Old Whitechapel
A police pursuit of drunken sailors spills onto the streetcar tracks, resulting in a wagon collision and mass confusion.
- A Razor and a Riot in Seattle's Tenderloin
A crowded Italian saloon at Third and Washington erupted into a free-for-all that took a squad of police to break up—and left the neighborhood talking.
- Swept Over the Falls: A Five-Year-Old Lost on a Spokane Bridge
Walking home from Sunday school, Walter Kreitz was struck by a Great Northern passenger train on the Post Street bridge. His body was carried downstream toward the falls and never recovered.
- Tragedy on the Log Booms
A young boy drowns in the slough near Weatherwax's logging works.
- The River Keeps Its Secret
Floodwaters have receded, but the search for two men lost in the Yakima River remains fruitless.
- Fatal Accident at the Fremont Lumber Mill
A day laborer at Lake Union loses his life after being struck by a drifting log while working on a boom.
- Settlers Beat the State to the Best School Lands
Washington's land commissioners say squatters are claiming the best parcels before the state can select them for schools, putting millions at risk.
Also about this, in other words
- The Apple Industry’s Existential Crisis
A committee of Pacific Northwest growers warns that thousands of carloads of fruit are rotting in orchards, necessitating a centralized by-product industry to survive.
- The Watermelon Heresy
A local clergyman denounces the region's favorite crop as the 'forbidden fruit,' drawing the ire of the town's fruit-loving newspaper.
- Will the Fruit Boom Break? Experts Urge Regional Controls
A newly formed board warns that unchecked fruit cannery expansion in the Northwest could lead to market collapse and financial ruin.
- The Bold Vision for Snohomish’s 'River Fruit'
How local developers aimed to transform thousands of acres of Snohomish river bottomland into a thriving orchard paradise.
- The Price of a Perfect Apple
How the struggle to market 'seconds and culls' reveals the hidden cracks in the Pacific Northwest’s fruit economy.
- The Klondike Nugget: A New Yakima Valley Fruit
After nearly two decades of experimentation, a local farmer unveils a plum variety that promises to outshine the industry standard.
- The War on Rot: Kennewick's Fruit Crisis
As WWI labor shortages threaten the local harvest, an editorial demands federal intervention to preserve the region's fruit.
- When Every Eastern Market Was Swamped: The 1897 Fruit Glut That Broke Northwest Growers
A Northwest agricultural writer tallies the wreckage of a boom season — glutted markets, freight and icing bills nobody could pay, and a blunt prescription for growers: dry your prunes and hold for a price.