Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 5 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
42 stories matching lath
- The $275,000 Plan to Dredge Olympia Into a Deep-Water Port
In 1892, a federal engineer proposed cutting a 12-foot channel through two miles of tide flats so ocean steamers could reach Fourth Street. The price tag was $275,000—and a bet on Olympia’s future.
- The Fatal Nail: A Tragedy in San Juan Valley
A routine repair job on the family farm turns into a fatal struggle with blood poisoning, highlighting the constant vulnerability of life in 1898.
- The Strike-Breakers of Sumner Iron Works
The Labor Journal calls out three specific workers who crossed the picket line to keep the machines running.
- Newport Iron Works Moves Into a Concrete Palace of Machines
The local machine shop shifted from its old frame building into Mr. Miner's new concrete plant and was turning iron again before nightfall.
- A Wooden Gun and a Jailbreak: The Hunt for Thomas Blanck
Nine prisoners escaped from the King County jail. Only three have been recaptured. The notorious Thomas Blanck is still at large, armed men guard the roads, and a woman's description may be the key.
- Fifty Turns on the Shaft: A Foundry Apprentice's Miraculous Escape
Nineteen-year-old Charles Meydenbauer was caught in the shafting at Moran's foundry, spun fifty times twenty feet above the floor—and lived to describe it.
- Spokane's New Municipal Building Lost in Fire
The nearly completed city hall, a $100,000 project, was gutted by a blaze that started from a plumber's tarpot.
- Seattle Rebuilds: Schwabacher Block, Arlington Hotel Lead Construction Surge
Architects unveil plans for new commercial blocks, a school, and hospital expansions as Seattle enters a building frenzy.
- A Near Disaster on the Waterfront
A fire in a Front Street lunch counter nearly consumes the business district after city officials neglected to enforce fire safety ordinances.
- The Wooden Revolver That Sprung Tom Blanck
A murderer awaiting appeal in the King County jail used a hand-carved fake gun to force his way past the night jailer, then vanished into the Black River woods as a sheriff's posse rushed south by special train.
- The Great Seattle Rebuild: Rethinking Fire Safety After the Ashes
In the wake of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, experts and local leaders scramble to replace wooden tinderboxes with new, fireproof standards and modern building codes.
- The Northwest Lumber Cartel Forms in Tacoma
Major mill owners from across the Puget Sound region organize to stabilize prices and set standard grades for timber.
- The Price of 'Independence'
A overheard conversation between union workers and non-union polishers reveals the harsh reality of labor exploitation in 1911 Everett.
- The Deadly Silence of the Mill
A young fireman is killed instantly when a mill boiler explodes, leaving the community to wonder how his body was thrust beneath the furnace.
- Free Wool, Free Lumber: Washington's Mill Towns Brace for the Tariff Shock
Seattle and Tacoma manufacturers warn that the new Havemeyer tariff will cut wages, ruin sheep raisers and hand the lumber trade to Canadian timbermen.
- Tragic Industrial Accident at Freeport Mill
A worker suffers severe injuries in a mill accident, sparking a desperate plea for his recovery.
- 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.
- Tragedy at the Yesler Mill
A worker ignoring safety warnings perishes after a sawmill accident.
- The Tiger Trainer Who Lived for Danger
For Charles W. Miller, a veteran animal trainer at the Bostock Zoo in Tacoma, the daily threat of being mauled by a 800-pound tiger was simply just another day at the office.
- A Woman’s Plea to Shed a Violent Past
A Seattle woman files for divorce and a name change, citing severe physical abuse and her husband's cruelty toward her children.
- The Lumber Blockade: A Plea for Economic Sovereignty
An 1878 editorial argues that Seattle’s timber and the inland prairies are two halves of a whole, choked by a 'grinding monopoly' of railroads and steamship companies.
- The Lumber Boom of 1887
Seattle's bustling mills are running night and day to keep up with the frantic demand for timber, driving labor wages and export prices to new heights.
- The Panama Canal Mail Scam
A woman is arrested in a federal courtroom for running a scheme promising young men jobs in Panama for a 25-cent fee.
- The Weather Bureau's Secret Weapon
An Aberdeen inventor was caught with a bizarre, Gattling-gun-style contraption designed to blast the clouds away and control the rain.
- The Big Thaw Returns Tacoma to Work
After two weeks of deep snow and arctic cold, Tacoma's building trades are finally getting back to business.
Also about this, in other words
- Conflicting Advice from the O-W, R. N. Company
The town is perplexed by contradictory expert demonstrations from the railroad—one telling them to raise hogs, the other telling them to stop using lard in baking.
- The Seattle Laundry Feud of 1887
A violent, years-long business rivalry between two rival laundry operators erupts in court, revealing the precarity of immigrant life and business in early Seattle.
- The Temperance Experiment: A Dry Billiard Parlor in La Conner
An 1878 advertisement for a local business offers a look at the unconventional rise of 'temperance billiard halls' that combined community recreation with strict abstinence.
- The Maryland House Offers a Temperance Haven
An early advertisement for a boarding house in La Conner promises 'No Liquor Sold,' marking a firm stance against the rowdier trade of the era.
- The Laundromat Fugitive
A laundry worker from San Francisco is captured in Seattle, linked to a bloody murder plot in a shadowy tong war.
- The Temperance Hotel of La Conner
An 1880s hotel proprietor promises a clean, quiet, and liquor-free establishment for the weary traveler.
- The Steam Laundry That Would Save Your Clothes (And Your Wallet)
In May 1877, Seattle businessman L.D. Frank announced a bold new venture: a steam-powered laundry on Commercial Street that promised to clean clothes faster and cheaper than the traditional Chinese method—while explicitly excluding Chinese workers.
- The Exclusionary Pledge of La Conner
A frontier town in the Swinomish Flats organizes a formal, collective boycott against Chinese residents, highlighting the intense racial tensions of the 1870s Pacific Northwest.