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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 9 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
28 stories matching ingenu
- The Jailer's Secret Cache
When nine prisoners attempted a daring escape from the Pierce County Jail, they left behind a strange assortment of contraband that revealed their desperate ingenuity.
- The Glass Master of Occidental Square
A traveling exhibition of delicate glass artistry offers a whimsical distraction to 1870s Seattleites.
- A Monument to Pullman Ingenuity
Washington State College students transform a massive boulder into a public water fountain at the Northern Pacific depot, marking a new chapter in town-gown cooperation.
- The Search for the Perfect Stage Infant
A theatrical agent’s unusual quest to recruit two non-crying, bottle-fed babies for a Seattle stage production.
- The Council's Saloon Charity
Aberdeen’s city fathers are accused of legal gymnastics by granting a liquor license under the guise of helping a struggling mother.
- The View from the Frontier: How the Old World Saw Pacific Coast Science
A visiting British scientist praises American ingenuity, from the innovative naval mapping of the Pacific depths to the reliable accuracy of 'Old Prob'—the precursor to modern weather forecasting.
- The Dream of the Flameless Mill
A bold industrial scheme in Olympia to run a lumber mill via the power of the tides—and the quiet, resourceful spirit behind the invention.
- The Logging Revolution on Skookum Chuck
Innovation in Snohomish: How timber barons traded oxen for steam-era ingenuity to keep the mills running.
- Spanning the Columbia: The Great Northern's Engineering Triumph
A massive, gravity-defying cantilever bridge nears completion near Rock Island, marking a feat of railroad ingenuity.
- The Teenaged Inventors of North Seattle
Two brothers, aged 13 and 15, harness the power of electricity to drive boats, light homes, and saw wood along the Seattle waterfront.
- The Runaway Street Car on Battery Street
When the brakes failed on a steep Seattle incline, passengers faced a terrifying ride as their horse-drawn car hurtled down the tracks toward the waterfront.
- The Struggle to Save the Harbor
Engineers and locals debate the best way to keep Seattle's waterfront from choking on silt and debris in 1876.
- The Rainy Weather Club’s Practical Revolution
Aberdeen women unite to reject impractical Victorian fashion in favor of functional, mackintosh-based rainy day gear.
- Rapid Transit to Eternity: Olympia's Kerosene Trolley, Minus the Matches
George Marvin Savage's homemade coal-oil motor car is about to carry paying passengers down to the Fourth Street track — if it doesn't explode first. Riders get accident insurance, and their obituary verses have already been written.
- The Women Who Packed Washington Into a World's Fair
At the Olympia Hotel, local women joined two state commissioners to plan wood carvings, wildflowers, art and industry for Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition.
- The Hidden Cruelty of Early Seattle
A visit to a Chinatown tenement reveals a harrowing reality of human suffering, sparking a volatile debate over labor, poverty, and local morality.
- The Streetcar 'Jack Pot Bank' That Kept Olympia's Railway Running
George Marvin Savage had a franchise to protect and no money to pay his workers—so he divided each day's fares into four pasteboard boxes and called it co-operation.
- The Boat That Built Itself Twice: How a Portland Captain Saved His Alaska Dream
Captain Spencer didn't just buy a wrecked sternwheeler; he bought the parts of two lost ships and assembled them into a new vessel, proving that in the age of steam, ingenuity could outpace disaster.
- A Messenger Boy, a Pawned Watch, and Badge No. 21
Detective Philbrick traced a stolen gold watch through Seattle pawnshops to a 17-year-old messenger who confessed to taking it while a woman slept.
- The Handmade Naphtha Car That Was Going to Revolutionize Olympia
At a stable on Puget and Third, George Marvin Savage's crew is building a one-off motor car—part streetcar, part joke—for Main Street.
- A Spokane Craftsman's Twelve-Year Masterpiece in Human Hair
Charles Streib spent over a decade creating portraits of Generals Washington and Sherman from thousands of strands of human hair—a feat of patience and artistry that astonished the city.
- The Board of Health Weighed Closing Every School in Seattle
Scarlet fever was moving through the city's classrooms in May 1895, and the men who ran public health argued over whether to send thousands of children home for six weeks — and whether parents could be trusted to report the sickness at all.
- A New Editor Rides Into Friday Harbor, Promising Independence and a Paper Second to None
The Islander introduces itself to San Juan County with a defiant platform: no party dictation, no saloon-baiting, and a pledge to be booted around town if it ever breaks its word.
- The Ship Canal Double-Cross at the Democratic Convention
Seattle's delegates went to Olympia ready to die on the canal plank. Their own campaign manager had already sold them out.
- A Palace on Rails Arrives in Newport
Idaho Washington Northern's new Pullman coaches—steam-heated, electric-lit and brass-trimmed—began service out of Newport, promising a new through line to Spokane.