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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 17 |
| 1877 | 14 |
| 1878 | 11 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 21 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 15 |
| 1886 | 8 |
| 1887 | 11 |
| 1888 | 7 |
| 1889 | 45 |
| 1890 | 6 |
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| 1894 | 32 |
| 1895 | 39 |
| 1898 | 5 |
| 1899 | 6 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1903 | 13 |
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| 1905 | 3 |
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| 1909 | 15 |
| 1910 | 5 |
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| 1916 | 11 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1922 | 3 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 2 |
433 stories matching level
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died Because They Stayed to Fight the Fire
A blaze in the Franklin coal mine sent smoke through the gangways on Aug. 24, 1894, killing 37 men and boys who thought they had time to escape.
- A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.
A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- Third Street’s Sidewalk Standoff—and the Railings That Made It Worse
A street cut left storefronts stranded above grade. When the city tried to fix the sidewalks, property owners sued; when it put up railings, the block looked worse.
- The Train That Didn't Whistle
A Seattle teamster loses a leg at a blind railroad crossing, and the Washington Supreme Court weighs whether his failure to stop and listen bars his claim against the Northern Pacific.
- The Waterfall That Broke the Poets: Snoqualmie’s Majestic Leap
A special correspondent describes the Snoqualmie Falls not as a mere tourist stop, but as a 'noble and striking natural wonder' that defies language, offering a glimpse into the rugged beauty of Washington Territory in 1888.
- The Franklin Mine Dead Were Buried. Then the Miners Went Back Down.
A relief fund swells with donations from Eddyville millmen and Seattle readers as surviving miners reopen the levels that did not burn.
- The Canal That Would Reshape Seattle, Held Up by Mud and Paperwork
In 1895 the government's Lake Washington ship canal was still a paper route, and every submerged lot owner had to sign away damages before a dredge could move.
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- The Stone Capitol Olympia Was Promised
Architect Ernest Flagg says the foundation is finished and bids are about to go out for a fireproof statehouse—one built to last, if the legislature will pay for it.
- The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach
A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.
- Five Levels Down, Orient's First Thought Mine Hits a Wall of Gold
A sixty-foot stope averaging better than $100 a ton — and assays running to $800 — convinces the Stevens County camp that the deeper it digs, the richer the ground gets.
- 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.
- The Battle for Lake Union's Waters
As water levels drop, the rivalry between two companies turns into a legal and physical brawl over the future of the Lake Union outlet.
- Opening the Cascade Gateway
A committee of citizens reports on the progress of a new wagon road through Snoqualmie Pass, promising a vital link between the Sound and the interior.
- 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 Canal That Would Raise Salmon Bay—and Fill Its Marshes
Government engineers promise Seattle property owners that the Lake Washington ship canal will not strand them: excavated earth will fill submerged land and a public street will run alongside the right-of-way.
- The Jail Was Out of Level
Fred Neuffer was due in court for embezzlement. Instead, Olympia’s county jail became the scene of a strange one-man investigation into whether the floor itself was crooked.
- A Doctor Traded His Drugstore for a ‘Level Bottom’ That Wasn’t
Dr. Van Dyke sued R. K. Latimer, claiming a Green River land swap was built on false promises about acreage worth far less than the store.
- Close Washington Street to Wagons: Olympia's 1891 Dream for the Public Square
As the new county courthouse nears completion, the superintendent in charge proposes grading the square level with Seventh Street, banishing heavy teams, and laying winding, shrub-lined walks with a pavilion for evening concerts.
- The Legislators Who Came to See a Ditch—and Left Believers
A steamboat tour of Smith Cove and Lake Union turns Eastern Washington lawmakers into ship-canal converts.
- Sultan River Prospectors Build a Half-Mile Flume
Deep in the Snohomish backcountry, a group of determined prospectors labors to divert the Sultan River in hopes of striking it rich.
- Into the Black: A Descent into Bellingham Bay Coal Mines
An intrepid traveler documents the perilous journey down an 800-foot incline to explore the workings of the Bellingham Bay Coal Company in the late 19th century.
- L.H. Rogers Seeks King County Farmland, 1891
A look at the turn-of-the-century land speculation market in King County, where suburban tracts were sold as the path to prosperity.
- The Great Storm of 1894
A violent cyclone-like windstorm tears through Western Washington, leveling buildings and trapping citizens in the debris.
Also about this, in other words
- The Three-Foot Loophole: A Clever Workaround for Tacoma's Gambling Ban
Tacoma's Olympic Club skirts police edicts by raising the floor three feet to technically evade gambling restrictions.
- The Deadly Cost of Progress on County Projects
Working 85 feet above the ground with pile drivers, Everett laborers face life-threatening conditions daily.
- The Price of Admission
When a new federal war tax on admissions threatens cinema prices, the local Princess theater owner decides to absorb the cost rather than pass it to patrons.
- The Speaker’s Gavel Clash
In the Territorial House, a subtle procedural error leads to a public confrontation over how legislation is truly passed.
- The Community Build-out of 1923
Citizens rally to level the high school grounds, saving taxpayers an estimated $600 in local labor.
- The Supreme Court Halts Seattle's Street Grading
A landmark court ruling forces the city to stop leveling streets unless they pay damages to homeowners.
- The Day the Floor Collapsed at the Revivals
A two-story church in Seattle, serving as a school on its lower floor, gave way under the weight of a crowd, resulting in a thirteen-foot plunge and multiple severe injuries.
- A $125 Doctorate: Bellingham's Normal School Principal on Trial
Sixteen charges — misapplied funds, incompetence and a mail-order Ph.D. — land the best-known educator in the Northwest before a governor-ordered hearing.