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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 5 |
| 1858 | 2 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 4 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 5 |
| 1876 | 118 |
| 1877 | 74 |
| 1878 | 48 |
| 1879 | 7 |
| 1880 | 10 |
| 1882 | 11 |
| 1883 | 72 |
| 1884 | 26 |
| 1885 | 77 |
| 1886 | 33 |
| 1887 | 44 |
| 1888 | 36 |
| 1889 | 71 |
| 1890 | 11 |
| 1891 | 65 |
| 1892 | 128 |
| 1893 | 150 |
| 1894 | 111 |
| 1895 | 33 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 29 |
| 1900 | 10 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 92 |
| 1904 | 46 |
| 1905 | 3 |
| 1908 | 3 |
| 1909 | 47 |
| 1910 | 15 |
| 1911 | 8 |
| 1912 | 10 |
| 1914 | 9 |
| 1915 | 3 |
| 1916 | 12 |
| 1917 | 4 |
| 1918 | 3 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 3 |
| 1925 | 2 |
1,452 stories matching mill
- 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 Queen City’s Timber Heart: Inside Seattle’s Lumber Boom
A detailed look at the seven sawmills powering Seattle’s growth, the wages of the men who cut them, and a massive waterfront land deal that signals the city's future.
- The Fortress of Timber: How Mill Barons Bought the Land to Buy the Town
In 1877, a local editorial warned that Port Blakely’s massive timber companies were cornering the market on real estate, creating an economic monopoly that would stifle independent growth and keep workers dependent on their employers.
- 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 Weight of the Mill: A Logger’s Victory on Puget Sound
For years, loggers were cheated by mill-owned scales that rigged the weight to keep pay low—until the Papal Mill Company broke the cycle.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.
- The Lumber Industry Consolidation at Port Hadlock
A major expansion of the Washington Mill Company signals a shift in the regional timber market as operators consolidate production to cut costs.
- The Mill That Vanished Before Its Workers Got Paid
Kent mill hands won wage liens, then found the company's assets allegedly shifted to a new corporation—and the sheriff returning 'No property found.'
- The Seattle Mill Strike of 1885
When the Yesler Mill announced sudden wage cuts, the workers staged a walkout that paralyzed the waterfront.
- The Price of a Mill Hand's Life
An anonymous laborer exposes the exploitative wage practices of the Puget Mill Company, detailing how the firm undercuts competitors by replacing white workers with Chinese laborers at subsistence wages.
- Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise
As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.
- Rising from the Ashes: A Seattle Sawmill's Rapid Rebirth
After a devastating fire, the Stetson & Post Mill Company leverages modern fire-safety technology and local community support to rebuild better than before.
- A Railroad Cut Off This Tacoma Mill. Now the City May Give It a New Way In.
The North Shore Lumber Company wants to rebuild its burned plant beyond Old Town, but Northern Pacific condemnation left it without waterfront access. A permit to sluice logs over Alder Street could bring 100 jobs and a 100,000-foot-a-day mill back to the gulch.
- The Mill That Never Was: How Chicago Capitalists Tried to Buy Seattle’s Soul
In June 1899, Theo. Ludgate arrived in town promising 800 jobs and a massive milling enterprise. Instead, he sparked a legal battle over land leases and vanished back east, leaving behind only the ghost of an industrial boom.
- Vigilante Justice at the Blaine Shingle Mill
Striking workers at a troubled shingle mill take matters into their own hands after the proprietor fails to pay wages.
- The Case for Decentralizing the Timber Industry
An 1870s editorial argues that Snohomish County loggers are being exploited by giant corporations and proposes a localized milling model to ensure economic independence.
- The Fight for the Ten-Hour Day on the Puget Sound
A historic, voluntary move by the Puget Mill Company to limit the workday sparks a push for better labor conditions in the mills.
- Ballard’s Shingle Mills Roar Back to Life
After months of silence due to litigation and economic uncertainty, the neighborhood's mill economy gears up for a busy winter.
- The Fiery End of a Ballard Mill
A state-of-the-art shingle mill in Ballard is reduced to cinders after a catastrophic fire, leaving 150 workers suddenly jobless.
- The Woodin Mill Burns Down
A fire sparked by a friction belt destroys a major Fairhaven lumber mill, leaving forty-seven men jobless in an already struggling economy.
- The Fire Fiend Stalks Seattle's Waterfront
A witness spots a mysterious arsonist fleeing the Western Mill in a rowboat, stoking fears of a serial firebug terrorizing the city's timber industry.
- The Dam That Shut Down Ballard
Fremont millers raised a timber barrier at Lake Union’s outlet. When Ballard’s mills lost their water, the fight went to court—after some talked of tearing it out by hand.
- Midnight Fire Wipes Out a Whatcom Shingle Mill and 19 Jobs
A hot box in the shingle mill ignites a $15,000 blaze on the Alton road, leaving Kenoyer Bros. and a lumber operator uninsured.
- Three Aberdeen Mills Prepare to Reopen, and the Town Breathes Again
A Portland firm takes over the Aberdeen Cedar Manufacturing Company's shingle mill, two other mills plan restarts, and a new boiler works raises hopes of a business revival.
- A Circular Saw Opened His Skull—and He Stayed Conscious
At the Stetson Post Mill on Commercial Street, engineer Horatio Stetson crawled under a rip-saw table to fix a belt. The saw caught his head, cutting through bone and into his brain, yet he never lost consciousness.
Also about this, in other words
- The Western Mill Company
Prominent local business leaders organize a new, modern lumber mill on the shores of Lake Union.
- A Near-Fatal Industrial Error at the Mill
A dangerous malfunction at a Seattle sawmill nearly crushes a worker, serving as a reminder of the perils of unregulated labor in the territory.
- The 'Pepper Box' Mill in the Wilderness
While critics claimed opportunity for the working man was dead, four shingle weavers built a successful, portable mill in the Everett outskirts.
- A Massive $200,000 Flouring Mill to Rise in Seattle
A local merchant returning from the East reports that Seattle’s potential is drawing high-stakes capital, with plans for a major industrial mill in the works.
- A Massive Expansion for the West Mill
Local business interests and citizens pool resources to save and modernize a major lumber mill.
- The Mill That Rose From Sunday's Ashes
Within days of a devastating fire, Whitehouse-Crimmins set 50 men to clearing debris and laid plans for a brick plant that would be running by December.
- The Mill That Could Have Been: A Snohomish Tragedy of Ambition and Illness
In June 1877, the Northern Star reported on the collapse of a massive new mill project at Port Ludlow, blaming the death of its owner, Arthur Phinney, for halting construction that promised to rival any in the territory.
- The Tragedy at the New Mill
A violent, drunken confrontation between two laborers at a Seattle-area sawmill ends in a shocking murder-suicide.