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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1861 | 3 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 4 |
| 1876 | 42 |
| 1877 | 33 |
| 1878 | 29 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 7 |
| 1883 | 30 |
| 1884 | 5 |
| 1885 | 27 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 10 |
| 1888 | 16 |
| 1889 | 46 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 42 |
| 1892 | 61 |
| 1893 | 51 |
| 1894 | 54 |
| 1895 | 79 |
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 7 |
| 1899 | 7 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 23 |
| 1904 | 20 |
| 1905 | 3 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 13 |
| 1909 | 30 |
| 1910 | 7 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1914 | 7 |
| 1915 | 8 |
| 1916 | 6 |
| 1917 | 4 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 5 |
| 1924 | 5 |
| 1925 | 3 |
| 1928 | 1 |
731 stories matching low
- The Engineer Who Tamed the Tides: Col. Wilson’s Blueprint for Snohomish’s Future
A master engineer presents a radical plan to dredge the Columbia and Willamette rivers, promising to unlock Seattle's potential by reshaping the very geography of the Pacific Northwest.
- Seattle's Streets Were Made of Wood. The Fight to Pave Them Was On.
A City Council vote for brick on Pike Street signaled the end of makeshift plank roads—if Seattle could stomach the first cost.
- Ice Breaks: Two Young Men Drown in Snohomish River Tragedy
Horace Low and Arthur Butt, employees of the local newspaper office, lost their lives after ice gave way beneath them while skating on the river.
- The Great Yakima Avenue Conflagration
A devastating blaze sweeps through the business district, leveled by fire and saved only by the grit of citizens and a stand of shade trees.
- The Land Office Rules for Lowe
A landmark land dispute, long considered impossible to resolve, has finally been decided by the federal government.
- The State Draws a Line Along Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1896, Olympia fixed the harbor boundary from West Seattle to Meadow Point, mapped new Duwamish and Salmon Bay waterways, and cleared the way to sell tide lands.
- The Boom on White River
Railroad expansion and hop farming are bringing sudden, unprecedented prosperity to the valley.
- The $250 Purse Nobody Could Spend
Walla Walla saloonkeepers pooled money to buy a friendly license ordinance. Then the councilman they thought was theirs voted the wrong way.
- Court Opens Salmon Bay to Harbor-Line Rules
The state Supreme Court reverses a lower-court writ and lets harbor line commissioners regulate Salmon Bay—even though the bay nearly drains at low tide—because Puget Sound freight boats still use it at high water.
- Railroads Raise the Freight on a Crop Already at Rock Bottom
A half-cent-a-pound shipping increase hits Washington hop growers just as overproduction and lice drive prices to their lowest ebb.
- Council Balks at Nearly $15,000 in Street Bids
Newport's council opened proposals for crosswalks and three street grades, then sent the whole package to committee after the low bids gave them sticker shock.
- The Last Stand of Bebe Low: A Saloon Keeper’s Final Plea
In August 1876, Seattle saloon owner Bebe Low publicly demanded his debts be settled before disappearing from the city, leaving behind a cryptic notice and a legacy of vanished frontier commerce.
- The Receiver Cut Their Pay 2 Cents an Hour. A Judge Made Him Put It Back.
When the Rainier Avenue Electric Railway's court-appointed receiver trimmed motormen's wages from 20 cents to 18 cents an hour, the crews — months behind on pay, with houses in Columbia City bought out of their own wages — took him to court and won.
- Tacoma’s Electric Light War
A private power company accuses the city of selling light below cost to drive it out of business—and of a local editor gagging the story because he runs his own hotel plant.
- 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 City Buried Its Own Mistake: Coroner’s Verdict Blames Seattle for Deadly Boiler Explosion
A coroner’s jury has issued a scathing indictment against the city of Seattle, its building inspectors, and a plumber for the negligence that led to a Tuesday night explosion. The verdict fixes blame on the municipality for allowing a dangerous steam heater beneath a public sidewalk without proper oversight.
- The Salmon-Trap Border War
Oregon fish officers arrested Washington fishermen for violating a Sunday closure—then found themselves indicted for kidnapping.
- Canoeing the Queets: Promise and Dispossession on the Olympic Peninsula
An 1892 travelogue celebrates homesteaders in the Queets River valley while arguing that Native hunters should be confined to the reservation.
- Tacoma's 1894: Falling Lumber, Rising Flour, and a New Rolling Mill
The Ledger's year-end review found reasons for optimism in shipping, smelting, meat packing, and new rail connections—even as low prices cut into the lumber trade.
- The Power Station That Bet on Newport’s Future
A Chicago engineer brings plans for a fireproof power station at Washington and Pine—and a 30-mile line meant to electrify Newport’s future.
- The Shingle That Carried Washington Through the Panic of 1893
A year-end accounting of the state's sawmills and shingle mills shows a timber empire reaching twenty-two foreign countries — and a rail trade down 25 percent as the national depression bites.
- The Twenty-Dollar Warrant That Put Okanogan County’s Credit on Trial
A Seattle trust company sues over a tiny delinquent warrant, and county scrip buyers freeze purchases as officials try to move onto a cash basis.
- Ballard's Shingle Mills Fire Back Up—But the Owners See Thin Margins
After a two-month shutdown, nearly every shingle mill in Ballard is running again. The smokestacks are busy, but low prices and a rail-car crunch keep the revival uneasy.
- The Hog Hedge: A Palouse Farmer's Strategy Against Low Wheat Prices
While grain markets slumped, one shrewd farmer used hog-raising to effectively boost his wheat profits by feeding his surplus crop to livestock.
- The 1878 Case for Buying the Dip in Seattle Real Estate
An editorial from the Seattle Intelligencer advises that despite hard times, the current low prices of labor and building materials make it the perfect time for working families to secure their own homes.
Also about this, in other words
- The City’s Fiscal Turnaround
Seattle’s rapid debt reduction and infrastructure growth are hailed as a success story for low-tax policy.
- The End of the City Cow
Tacoma moves to ban the 'lowing herd' from city limits, declaring that more than two cows makes a dairy, not a home.
- The Janitor's Failed Replevin of Romance
A Seattle janitor attempted to sue his former flame for the return of bedroom furniture after she refused to marry him, only to be laughed out of court.
- A 30-Cent Debt Ends in a Water Pitcher, a Watch Chain, and Two Lawsuits
A Newcastle boarding-house keeper and a stage driver turn a petty fare dispute into a grand-larceny trial, a jury, and a follow-up assault charge.
- The False Doctrine of 'Supply and Demand'
A labor manifesto argues that using the 'cheapest man' to set wage standards is a race to the bottom that threatens the integrity of community and family life.
- Abandoned in a Tent
A sick, elderly man found destitute near Lowden Station is moved to the county poorhouse after neighbors can no longer provide care.
- Sixteen Paupers, a Clay-Bed Well, and a Farm Not Fit to Live On
County commissioners tour the county poor farm and find cracked fences, filthy bedding, horses bleeding on barbed wire and water unfit to drink. The old place will be sold, they say — but only if a poor farm is worth having at all.
- The Unstable Foundations of Early Seattle
When aggressive development on the Masonic lot caused a prominent brick building on Front Street to crack, it revealed the high-stakes risk of early Seattle’s rapid expansion.