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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
14 stories matching loam
- 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 Timber Land Swindle: How Seattle’s Elite Claimed Farmable Soil as Forest
A federal commissioner rules that the lands held by Bailey and Hawley are actually fertile agricultural soil, not timber land, overturning decades of speculative entries in the Samish Lake district.
- The Buried Forest Beneath Denny Hill
Excavations for a new industrial facility in Seattle reveal a startling subterranean history: an ancient, preserved forest resting 22 feet beneath the city's surface.
- The Struggle for Water in the High Desert
While Washington’s coastal regions flourished, homesteaders in the arid eastern interior were driven to desperation by the failure of deep-well drilling in Douglas County.
- A Road, a Railroad and a 10x10 Schoolhouse: Into the Wilds of Clallam County
S. W. Clark returns from the far western corner of the Olympic Peninsula with tales of rich soil, bachelors' cabins, Indian-canoe supply lines and a weekly paper published in the forest.
- The Gold Rush at Nez Perces
A local captain reports on the booming prospects for thousands of miners seeking quartz gold in the Blue Mountains.
- The Poor Man's Stump Burner: Newport Farmers Pack Kelly's Hall
In 1909, 150 farmers crowded a Newport hall to hear a state expert explain how to clear land by charring stumps—a low-cost method that promised to open Pend Oreille County fields.
- The Day an Indian Survived a Waterfall Leap
Mitchell Potera, a Shawnee man from Waunette, Washington, jumped off Steilacoom Falls to escape his pursuers—and walked away with only scratches.
- The Great Log Jam: A River of Lost Timber
In March 1877, a sudden rise in the Skykomish River swept away thousands of feet of logs belonging to local sawmills, turning a potential fortune into driftwood.
- The Log Jam That Held Back a Valley: Skagit Settlers Propose a DIY River Clearance
With a massive log jam blocking navigation on the Skagit River, a settler proposes that landowners take matters into their own hands rather than wait for Congress.
- Selling the Pend Oreille Valley as an Agricultural Eden
A booster’s tour of bench land, clover, and bumper potato crops—and why the railroad and Spokane cream market changed everything.
- The Hard Sell for Inland Empire Farms
Spokane boosters and Kennewick business leaders draft a regional campaign to recruit farmers for 'untilled' lands, pivoting away from the era's wild land speculation.
- The Marsh That Could Feed a City: Snohomish’s Hidden Goldmine
A detailed survey of the vast wetlands between Snohomish and the Skykomish River reveals thousands of acres of fertile land, drained by new ditches and accessible by scow, waiting for developers to turn swamp into wealth.
- The Promised Land of North River
A booster advertisement in 1878 paints the North River Valley as a hidden agricultural utopia awaiting two hundred families.
Also about this, in other words
- The Loomis Land Grab
A prospector files a homestead claim on 'Tunnel Flat,' a prime piece of land long overlooked by local mining interests.
- The Secrets of a High-Yield Orchard
A century ago, Benton County’s agricultural expert shared the hard-won wisdom on which cover crops would save the local soil—and which would kill the trees.
- The Tragedy of a Well-Digger
A local well-digger perishes in a collapse while working on an Arthur Heidemann tract near White Bluffs, sparking a desperate, days-long rescue attempt.
- Fire Destroys Home in Loomis
A local family lost their home to fire, triggering a massive show of support from the generous Loomis community.
- The Clam Bake That Defined a City
When a visiting delegation of Midwesterners arrived in 1886, Seattle citizens didn't just host them—they illuminated the hills and threw a massive communal feast on the Sound.
- Chasing the Mother Lode in the Cascades
A prospector shares his frustrated search for the source of placer gold in the northern Cascades.
- The Sack Famine Hits the La Conner Flats
Farmers face a crippling shortage of grain sacks, threatening the season's oat harvest as dealers refuse to speculate on the necessary supplies.
- Meadows to Oats
High prices for grain drive local ranchers to abandon hay production in favor of cash crops.