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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
25 stories matching onward
- Victoria’s Million Dollar Bet on a Railway
The city of Victoria, B.C., plans to bond itself for a million dollars to lure the Northern Pacific Railroad to build a northern route through Aberdeen.
- The Skokomish Jubilee
Hundreds of Indigenous people from across the region gather for a major tribal assembly, despite the perils of travel.
- The Oxford of the Pacific Northwest
A traveling correspondent visits Seattle's Territorial University, witnessing a thriving center of learning and a student body embracing the 'equal rights mania.'
- Gunfight in the Teanaway Basin
A sheriff's posse ambushes suspected bank robbers in the Cascades, sparking a mountain manhunt.
- The Unseen Cost of Modern Progress
An editorial from 1890 reflects on the plight of the unemployed and the friction between the 'well-fed' and the hungry during Seattle’s rapid industrial expansion.
- Sudden Death of a Whatcom Minister
Rev. J. V. Dimon, a former minister who recently took a job as a mill timekeeper, dies suddenly on a streetcar.
- Saying Goodbye to Seattle's Finest Residence
A historic home, once the city’s grandest, is rolled away to make room for progress.
- The 'Committee of Fifteen' and the Struggle Against Chinese Labor in Tacoma
An archival look at the exclusionary 1886 resolution that fueled the violent campaign to purge Chinese residents from Tacoma.
- The Waterfront Teeming with Global Trade
A look at the sheer variety of goods flowing through Seattle's wharves reveals a city rapidly expanding as a commercial powerhouse.
- The City That Outgrew Its Rivals
An 1885 dispatch from the front lines of the Seattle boom describes a town shedding its humble roots and leaving former neighbors like Steilacoom in the dust.
- Head-On Collision Near Van Asselt
An avoidable railway disaster occurs when two trains occupy the same track, leaving passengers rattled and equipment destroyed.
- Commencement at the Opera House
A packed Opera House celebrates the graduation of three nurses from the Walla Walla Hospital.
- The Great Maple Valley Bear Panic
When a black bear wandered into their backyard, a frontier couple abandoned their home and fled on horseback to escape the 'ferocious' beast.
- 1878 Seattle Grapples With Nationwide Money Shortage
While 1878 brought economic panic across the nation, Seattleites rejected the idea that their town was failing, pointing to local grit and coal-laden wharves as the true engines of progress.
- Trapped in the Snowy Labyrinth of the North Cascades
A Seattle prospecting party seeking a Skagit River mine nearly perishes in a brutal trek through Whatcom County’s mountain wilderness.
- The Iron Flash: How Spokane Fell for a Railroad
In a daring midnight maneuver that bypassed local obstructionists, the Oregon and Washington Territory railroad laid its tracks through downtown Spokane in a single night, turning a political standoff into a civic celebration.
- The Jealousy That Shut Down a Shop: A Seattle Woman’s Fight for Livelihood
In 1888, a Seattle lumber shop owner saw her business destroyed not by market forces, but by the petty sabotage of her customers' wives. Her story reveals the fragile economic existence of women in the frontier city.
- Trapped on the Columbia River Ice
A bank cashier and his stage coach driver find themselves stranded on shifting ice flows until an Indigenous horseman orchestrates a daring rescue.
- The $3 Million Strike: How the Great Northern Railway Bet on Breaking Workers
In the winter of 1893, the railroad’s board calculated that paying workers less was cheaper than losing millions to a strike. They were right—and Seattle paid the price.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: Walla Walla’s Delusion of Wealth
In January 1889, a local paper in Walla Walla, Washington, published an ecstatic report claiming the city was awash in gold dust and twenty-dollar pieces, comparing its prosperity to the heyday of the Salmon River mines. It was a stark contrast to the reality of a region still recovering from economic busts.
- The Goddess of Slang: A Poetic Flirtation in the Territory
A whimsical verse from the late 19th century captures the playful, rhyming courtship rituals of Snohomish Territory, offering a glimpse into the lighthearted side of pioneer life.
- The River That Swallowed a Steamboat: A Brave Attempt to Reach Snohomish Falls
Twenty-five passengers and tons of freight battled the treacherous Snoqualmie River on the steamer *Columbia*, only to be stopped by a massive landslide just miles from their destination.
- The Temple of Thought: Snohomish Builds Its Own Athenaeum
A visiting orator declares the new Snohomish Athenaeum a 'temple of science, literature, and art,' rising from the wilderness to preserve the intellectual legacy of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Orphan’s Plea: A Poem That Moved Seattle to Tears on Decoration Day
As the city honored Civil War dead with solemn processions and speeches, a young girl’s grief over her father’s unmarked grave brought the Grand Marshal to tears.
- A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking
In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.