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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1876 | 19 |
| 1877 | 14 |
| 1878 | 9 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 25 |
| 1884 | 7 |
| 1885 | 10 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 13 |
| 1888 | 6 |
| 1889 | 42 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 24 |
| 1892 | 62 |
| 1893 | 50 |
| 1894 | 52 |
| 1895 | 71 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 12 |
| 1899 | 12 |
| 1900 | 4 |
| 1902 | 3 |
| 1903 | 16 |
| 1904 | 16 |
| 1905 | 4 |
| 1907 | 2 |
| 1908 | 7 |
| 1909 | 21 |
| 1910 | 6 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 6 |
| 1915 | 4 |
| 1916 | 15 |
| 1917 | 7 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 2 |
| 1928 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
582 stories matching imposs
- The Mysterious Death of Mr. Pullin
A citizen questions the official report of a man found dead in the water, fearing he was silenced before a looming lawsuit.
- The Oysterville Affair Remains Unpunished
A prosecutor declines to pursue charges in a notorious Pacific County incident, admitting that a jury conviction would be impossible.
- The Cow Testing Ordinance Debacle
A local editor slams the city council for proposing an impossible dairy regulation that threatens to leave the town without milk.
- Budget Cuts Silence Washington's Farmers' Institutes
A Pullman college president tells The Ranch that six or seven faculty posts were cut, leaving no one free to carry agricultural lectures into the countryside in 1903.
- The Ghost Railroad Through Cowlitz Pass
Booster papers are peddling impossible surveys for a transcontinental line that exists only in the imagination of speculators.
- The Struggle for Labor's Worth
As telegraphers across the country walk off the job, the local press debates the morality of corporate monopolies versus the rights of the individual laborer.
- A Judicial Feud Erupts in Whitman County
A former prosecutor and a sitting judge trade public accusations of deceit, perjury, and misconduct involving a prisoner and a local jail scandal.
- The Auditor's Ledger Reveals County Financial Chaos
A two-year audit of Yakima County's books exposes missing records, uncollected taxes, and an impossible-to-balance treasury.
- The Great Seattle Cow Menace of 1877
Before the city was paved, Seattle’s early residents struggled with 'educated' cows that dismantled fences and destroyed gardens under the cover of night.
- The Demand for Life-Saving Guard Rails
A witness to a horrific accident involving a child and a cable car calls for mandatory safety equipment on Seattle transit.
- The Miracle Medicine of 1889
A local Colonel claims a miraculous recovery from pneumonia, sparking a business opportunity for the city's druggists.
- Accidental Shooting of W.I. Price
A prosecutor declines to charge a local constable for a shooting deemed accidental.
- The City That Couldn't Host Its Guests
As steamers bring hundreds of travelers to Seattle, local hotels are full and a new building sits empty in legal limbo, leaving strangers sleeping on docks.
- The Swamps and Hills of Democracy
For settlers near Cottage Lake, a four-mile trip to the polls was rendered impossible by rough terrain, forcing a twenty-five-mile detour until local officials intervened.
- A Community Rallies After a Railway Tragedy
When a young brakeman loses his foot in a rail accident near the Cedar River, local citizens organize to secure his future.
- The Nameless Grave by the Tulalip
A grim discovery near Marysville reveals the quiet tragedy of a life ending in the river woods.
- Turning Alkali Wasteland into Productive Soil
A Yakima farmer reports a successful experiment in reclaiming unusable alkali land through irrigation and flooding.
- Puyallup Reservation Lands Distributed
After a long period of waiting, Puyallup families have finally received land patents as the reservation is divided into 167 tracts.
- Benton City Merchant Loses Everything in Fire
A local family returns from an evening out to find their home and business leveled by flames.
- Black Diamond No. 12: A Mine Fire, a Sealed Slope, and 100 Men Idle
Fire breaks out in the pump room of Black Diamond's No. 12 mine, forcing superintendent to seal the slope and steam the flames while a hundred miners are thrown out of work.
- The Mailroom Mountain: A Postal Crisis in 1892
Seattle residents and postmasters struggle to keep up with the city's explosive growth as federal officials ignore pleas for a larger workforce.
- The General's Last Stand: Seattle Watches Sheridan’s Heartbeat
As the nation holds its breath over General Philip Sheridan’s critical illness in Washington D.C., local doctors and citizens here in Seattle track his vital signs with the same intensity as a presidential convention.
- The Fire at the Granger Cottage
A modest $1,000 home is reduced to ash in a Sunday afternoon blaze, marking yet another loss in a series of local misfortunes.
- The Mail That Stopped Coming to Puget Sound
For more than ten days no mail arrived from California or the Atlantic states. Steilacoom’s editor blamed a federal order in San Francisco and wondered how long the town could keep publishing.
- The Strange Salvage of the Snohomish River
After days of underwater labor, the sunken hull of a local vessel has finally been raised from the riverbed.