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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 8 |
| 1858 | 3 |
| 1859 | 5 |
| 1860 | 3 |
| 1861 | 10 |
| 1862 | 16 |
| 1863 | 5 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1871 | 3 |
| 1872 | 27 |
| 1876 | 216 |
| 1877 | 158 |
| 1878 | 82 |
| 1879 | 14 |
| 1880 | 48 |
| 1882 | 36 |
| 1883 | 156 |
| 1884 | 65 |
| 1885 | 148 |
| 1886 | 87 |
| 1887 | 88 |
| 1888 | 132 |
| 1889 | 374 |
| 1890 | 45 |
| 1891 | 222 |
| 1892 | 476 |
| 1893 | 390 |
| 1894 | 347 |
| 1895 | 464 |
| 1896 | 1 |
| 1897 | 17 |
| 1898 | 54 |
| 1899 | 94 |
| 1900 | 9 |
| 1902 | 11 |
| 1903 | 141 |
| 1904 | 107 |
| 1905 | 13 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 75 |
| 1909 | 200 |
| 1910 | 35 |
| 1911 | 21 |
| 1912 | 8 |
| 1914 | 32 |
| 1915 | 35 |
| 1916 | 65 |
| 1917 | 56 |
| 1918 | 7 |
| 1919 | 2 |
| 1922 | 4 |
| 1923 | 20 |
| 1924 | 15 |
| 1925 | 5 |
| 1928 | 3 |
4,668 stories matching great
- The Chief’s Last Stand: A Vision of Justice Beyond the Grave
In a rare and poignant interview, Spotted Tail articulates a theology of retribution where the Great Spirit favors the Native American over the white settler in the afterlife.
- James J. Hill's Railroad Ultimatum to Seattle
The Great Northern president tells Seattle's council he will build freight and passenger terminals 'right away'—if the city grants the track franchises he wants across the tide flats and South Third.
- Great Northern Insists Seattle Won't Be a Branch Line
Portland's Oregonian claimed the railroad would demote Seattle to a spur. Company officials call it a 'canard' — but the fight over which city the rails terminate at is real.
- Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise
As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.
- A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking
In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.
- The Senator Who Came to Bless the Canal
Illinois senator Shelby Cullom tours Seattle's proposed Lake Washington ship canal, flirts with a presidential run, and tells boosters their city needs 'a little Chicago push.'
- The Chief's Daughter in the Shadow of the City Named for Her Father
A San Francisco Chronicle correspondent visits Princess Angeline in her Seattle shack and finds the city proudly carving her father's face on a new business block while his daughter lives on charity.
- Newport to the Railroad Commission: Our Depot Is a Disgrace
State regulators will inspect the Great Northern's station and train service on May 7, and Newport citizens are being organized to demand a new depot, safe crossings, and basic comforts.
- A Second Railroad Strike Threatens Seattle as Union Demands Great Northern Stand Down
Seattle's American Railway Union president receives a telegram from Chicago ordering a halt to Great Northern's assistance to other roads — and local trainmen brace for another walkout.
- The Dry Dock That Would Make Puget Sound a Naval Power
Senator Watson Squire tells the U.S. Senate that the Port Orchard dry dock is the largest in America and the cheapest in the world—and that the Northwest's future depends on finishing it now.
- The Governor's Booster Sermon for Washington Territory
Gov. Newell told a Whatcom crowd that timber, coal, fisheries and harbors made the territory's future inevitable—and that the greatest city would rise at the entrance to the Straits.
- The Iron Giant Lands: Moss Bay Steel Chooses Seattle Without Asking for a Penny
In a stunning victory for civic pride over corporate bribery, the massive Moss Bay Iron and Steel Company has selected Lake Washington as its site, rejecting lucrative bonuses from rival cities and the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.
- Great Northern Races to Finish Its Newport Cut-off by September
A rumored route change, a new bridge and crews working through slides and clay banks point to a major reworking of the railroad between Newport and Spokane.
- Wenatchee Growers Told a Railroad: Give Us Water and We'll Fill Your Freight Cars
A delegation of Wenatchee Valley orchardists met Great Northern officials at Seattle's Hotel Butler to argue that irrigation—not mines or timber—would turn eastern Washington into a freight-producing countryside.
- Grandma Fea Crossed an Ocean, a Yellow Fever Epidemic and a Sawmill Explosion to Die at 94 in Newport
Ann Liddle Fea, the Scotch widow who arrived with the Great Northern and became the town's beloved 'Grandma,' was buried from her daughter's house on May 20 — leaving 23 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren behind her.
- When the Water Came Up to the Post Office: Floods Cut Seattle’s Rail and Mail Lines
Spring freshets submerged low streets, stalled Great Northern and Northern Pacific trains, and left Seattle business houses waiting days for mail.
- A Railroad Manager in Seattle Pities the Men Who Paid to Hear Debs
John M. Egan slips into the Rainier-Grand Hotel to denounce Eugene Debs as a well-fed agitator—and to explain why the railroads are broke.
- The Great Whatcom Railroad Brawl
Construction crews for two rival railroads face off in a pitched battle over a trestle crossing, turning a civil dispute into a physical struggle on the tracks.
- Spokane Prepares to Welcome the Northern Pacific’s Last-Spike Excursion
In September 1883, Spokane Falls planned arches, speeches and a day of civic pageantry to greet President Henry Villard and the railroad party opening the transcontinental line.
- Wenatchee, 1898: A Valley Sold on Irrigation and Fruit
A booster's tour of the Wenatchee Valley recounts the first settlers, the whisky traders who fled the law, and the orchards and ditches that promised to turn sagebrush into wealth.
- 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.
- When the Skagit River Swallowed Mount Vernon: The Great Flood of 1894
A sudden heat wave melted mountain snow, sending rivers over their banks and putting whole towns underwater. In Mount Vernon, 300 men fought a losing battle against the rising Skagit.
- The Judge Who Gambled Away His Office: Soderberg’s Dramatic Resignation
After the grand jury returned five indictments for extortion and malfeasance in office, District Attorney Joseph Soderberg walked into court, tendered his resignation, and declared he would repay every illegal fee to the county treasury.
- The Death of Whitechapel: Great Northern’s Seattle Land Grab
A major expansion of the Great Northern railway threatens to erase the working-class district of Whitechapel to build a central passenger depot.
Also about this, in other words
- The Great Egyptian Mystery: Living People Dissolve Into Air
Seattle audiences are treated to a 'London Sensation' at Yesler's Hall this week, featuring the world-renowned Mademoiselle Ilma and illusions that defy nature.
- The Great Hall Swells: Democrats Gather for Their First Convention
A torrent of humanity floods the exposition hall as the national Democratic party begins its proceedings, with New York delegates plotting their strategic withdrawal.
- The Great Unknown: Snohomish’s Centennial Celebration and the Rise of a Logging Empire
On July 4, 1893, the community gathered at the River Side Hotel for music, oratory, and history, marking a decade of growth in a county defined by its forests.
- The Great Thaw: Mountain Snows Turn Every River Into a Rampage
An unusually cool spring held a winter's worth of snow until a few hot days sent it all down at once, flooding the Skagit, Cowlitz and Columbia, drowning farmland and putting Portland under water.
- The Great Inter-City Musical Bridge
Seattle and Tacoma celebrate social ties with a grand concert and gala featuring the University Glee Club.
- The Great Egyptian Mystery: Seattle’s Firefighters Raise Funds with a Spectacle of Living Slides
At Yesler's Hall this evening, the city gathers not for news or politics, but to watch 'living people dissolve into air' in aid of the volunteer fire department.
- The Great One Thing: Seattle’s First Bid to Stop Strangers from Leaving Empty-Handed
In 1876, a group of local citizens proposed an 'Immigration and Labor Bureau' to help newcomers find work and land, recognizing that Seattle was losing potential residents because they didn't know where to start.
- The Great Spelling Bee of 1873
Before high-speed internet and digital debates, Seattle’s social life centered on the grand Spelling Match, a community competition held at Yesler’s Hall.