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120 stories matching outlet
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- The Fremont Mill Canal Dispute
A local mill company is accused of blocking a natural waterway with piles and a building to manufacture a legal claim against the city's proposed ship canal.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Stage as an Antidote to 'Society Scandals'
When asked why she continued working despite her wealth, the famed actress Lotta Crabtree warned that women who lacked professional 'outlets' were prone to depression and mischief.
- The Unfinished Ditch That Could Have Remade Seattle
An 1877 proposal to carve a channel between Lake Washington and the Sound highlights the ambitious—and forgotten—infrastructure dreams that once defined the city’s early development.
- Farmers Petition to Reshape the Duwamish Basin
Facing constant flooding and ruin, regional farmers unite to demand a massive engineering project to redirect the Cedar River and deepen the waterways of Seattle.
- The Promised Land of Hayview
A new town platted on Padilla Bay promises a boom in lumber, and land-seekers are urged to stake their claims.
- The Great Stuck River Jam: A Battle Over Water and Land
In a tense standoff on the White River, Pierce County cattlemen illegally dammed the waterway to protect their pastures, forcing King County officials to ride out with Winchester rifles to avert a violent conflict.
- Who Should Own the Canal That Would Make King County?
In a long letter to the editor, a Seattle correspondent takes apart the bill letting King County buy the Washington Canal — and warns that handing the region's only outlet to a private company would 'sell the birthright of the future citizens.'
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.
- The Proposal to Reshape Seattle's Waterways
A civil engineer proposes cutting a new channel between Lake Washington and Lake Union to prevent devastating floods in the Duwamish and White River valleys.
- Surveyors Map a Path for the Lake Washington Ship Canal
A mysterious but well-funded crew begins the long, arduous work of designing a canal to connect the Sound to Lake Washington.
- 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 Swamp That Was: How a Drainage Project Threatened to Reclaim King County’s Wetlands
In 1876, local farmers petitioned the county to drain the marshes between White and Black rivers, arguing that reclamation would boost public health and add millions to the region's wealth.
- Seattle's 1877 Plea: Build a Wagon Road Over the Cascades Before Portland Steals the Inland Empire
With no railroad yet across the mountains, a Seattle newspaper argued the city's future depended on a wagon road to Yakima—before Portland grabbed the inland trade forever.
- The Log Jam in Lake Union
How an innovative timber operation cut a channel through the lake to reach salt water, forever changing the Seattle landscape.
- The Wires That Grew With Seattle
How the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company rode Seattle from a forest village to a 25,000-person city — and, when the Great Fire of 1889 burned its plant out of existence, rebuilt the service in tents within ten days.
- The Sewer Plan That Imagined a City of 200,000
Engineer J. S. Camp presented Olympia’s council with a tide-powered reservoir and automatic flush tanks, a system meant to grow with the capital city.
- 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.
- The Healing Lake That Hid a Walking Fish
On the Columbia plateau near Spokane lies a strange saline lake with no inlet and no outlet — credited with curing rheumatism, foaming like soap in the wind, and home to an axolotl that fooled the naturalists.
- The Struggle for Kamilchie: A Seattle Land Hustle
A classic 1891 promotional scheme disguised as news, pushing a new townsite as the necessary 'natural outlet' for the region's prosperity.
- A Wooden Gun and a Jailbreak: The Hunt for Thomas Blanck
Nine prisoners escaped from the King County jail. Only three have been recaptured. The notorious Thomas Blanck is still at large, armed men guard the roads, and a woman's description may be the key.
- The Day the Wind Took Down Tacoma’s New Buildings
A fierce storm topples a nearly finished commercial building, claiming the life of a prominent contractor and leaving a city in shock.
- The Canal Fight That Would Reshape Seattle
Senator Allen's enemies are attacking him over his support for the Lake Washington ship canal — but the 1889 legislative memorial shows one of his loudest critics once voted for it.
Also about this, in other words
- The End of an Institution
Seattle's iconic Arcade dry goods store closes its doors, marking the end of a remarkable partnership.
- The Power Grab: Tacoma Businessmen Battle Utility Monopoly
Prominent citizens organize to fight an electric franchise they fear will cripple local industry and inflate power prices.
- The Barber Who Inhaled Gas and Ran Screaming Down Pacific Avenue
A faulty gas arc left a new barber violently irrational and touched off a street struggle in Tacoma.
- A Close Call at the Cleaning Shop
Static electricity turns a routine cleaning job into a dangerous fire, destroying a local shop's equipment and wardrobe.
- Tragic Accidental Electrocution in Tacoma Home
A prominent local family mourns the loss of their teenage son following a freak electrical accident in his own bedroom.
- The Tragedy at the Arcade Saloon
A well-known Seattle boarding house keeper ends his life, leaving behind a young daughter and a legacy of property, marking a grim moment in the city's growth.
- The Colfax Sack Elevator
A local inventor creates a machine designed to eliminate the back-breaking labor of stacking grain in regional warehouses.
- Fatal Surge on Pacific Avenue
High-voltage electricity crosses wires at a construction site, claiming the lives of two local workers and endangering several others.