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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1908 | 1 |
28 stories matching innumer
- Firecrackers and Guard Duty for the New Year
As the Chinese community celebrates, the City Council forces them to pay for their own police watchmen.
- A Passenger Revolt Against Seattle’s 'Dirty' Steamers
A visiting general and his party refused to board a local vessel, sparking a public outcry over the state of regional maritime transit.
- Smallpox in the Jury Box: Court Shut Down by a Newport Man's Illness
A five-day lumber trial in Colville collapses when George Perkins is diagnosed with smallpox, sending jurors home and raising fears the disease will spread across Stevens County.
- The Battle for Education Funding
Seattle school officials rally against state legislature 'land-booming' schemes that prioritize local property interests over the needs of students.
- The Industrial Kingdom of Port Gamble
In 1872, the Puget Mill Company reigned supreme over a company town that prioritized industrial output and 'refinement'—with a cemetery view to match.
- Seattle Rebuilds With Brick After Great Fire
How the Queen City responded to the 1889 conflagration with both civic resilience and a remarkable display of internal charity.
- Vigilantes Clean House in Walla Walla
An organized shadow group forces suspected criminals out of town in the dead of winter.
- The Promised Land on Puget Sound
An 1878 booster letter to the Midwest paints a portrait of Washington Territory as a temperate, fertile frontier where anyone willing to work a log house could find independence.
- The Brutal Truth of the 'Workaday' Struggle
An 1879 editorial reflects on the universal, grinding necessity of securing a livelihood, observing that even in a 'republic' built on individualistic grit, most people are only one misstep away from ruin.
- The Ghost of Tacoma's Original Downtown
Before the railroad turned Tacoma into a boomtown, the city's future was fought over by competing pioneers and land speculators.
- The Scapegoat of Pierce County
A prominent local businessman finds himself the target of a smear campaign after a financial scandal guts the county treasury, revealing the toxic power of public rumor in 1870s Tacoma.
- A Frontier City That Could Not Stop Building
Brick blocks, storefronts, and frame houses rose across Spokane Falls as contractors raced winter—and touted the town's future.
- The Unfiltered Delight of an 1885 North Cascades Trek
Before the North Cascades were fully mapped, a party of thirty-three Seattleites scrambled up a peak near the Nooksack River for a view that they hoped would 'soon' become a national treasure.
- They Burned Letters to the Dead on Ayer's Hill
Olympia's Chinese community gathered at a hillside cemetery in 1891 to honor eight departed countrymen with roast pork, red candles, wine and paper messages sent into the next world.
- Seattle Starts Building Its Own Ground
Contractors drive the first piles in the tide flats, launching a massive fill project that will remake the city’s waterfront and industrial south end.
- Seattle’s First Great Street: How Denny Hill Became Front Street
In March 1877, the city is racing to finish the brutal grading of Front Street, transforming a muddy slope into Seattle’s first grand thoroughfare.
- A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish
A federal injunction stops the Point Roberts packing company from taking sockeye while the cannery argues the reef was never reserved to the Lummi—and that 130 jobs hang in the balance.
- Seattle's Canal Backers Turn Up the Pressure—and the Cash
Boosters behind the Lake Washington canal reported fresh subscriptions, promised a gravity water supply for the tide flats, and argued the city could not afford to miss its chance.
- The Man Who Survived Thirteen Doctors
A patient's wry, furious account of his bout with spinal meningitis — and the horse-doctor who killed a servant girl with a morphine syringe — skewers the medical profession of his day.
- The Newspaper War Between Spokane Falls and Cheney
Spokane's Review savages the county seat of Cheney as a mud-bound, half-deserted village of one brick building — and admits the whole feud is over which town will boom.
- A City Turned Out to Bury George Heilbron
In 1895, Seattle’s governor, mayor, judges, businessmen and laborers filled the First Unitarian Church for the funeral of a civic leader who had helped build the young city.
- The 3,249-Acre Map That Laid Out Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1895, King County appraisers filed the first full plat of Seattle’s tide lands—reserving broad rail avenues, harbor blocks and a street grid that still shadows the modern waterfront.
- Washington's Public Lands Were Run by a Patchwork. Reformers Wanted One Powerful Board.
A joint legislative committee concludes that county tide-land boards, roving land cruisers and district attorneys have wasted public money, and recommends a three-member state land board to manage school and tide lands.
- The Union Veteran Who Sued the Railroad for a Million-Dollar Tacoma
Anthony P. Carr says Northern Pacific agents helped a claim-jumper steal his homestead. More than a thousand Tacoma lots—and the people living on them—depend on what the Supreme Court decides.
- The Shipworm Eating Seattle’s Waterfront
Wharf owners were spending a fortune fighting a saltwater pest. The fix: fill the tide flats, cut freshwater waterways, and make the harbor safe for pilings—and insurance.