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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1892 | 7 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 2 |
28 stories matching outset
- Cooperative Selling Finds Its Feet
North Pacific Fruit Distributors report over $3 million in sales, standardizing the regional fruit trade.
- The Deadly Cost of Preserving Milk
A local doctor's experiment on a kitten reveals the dangerous effects of formaldehyde as a milk preservative, sparking a public health investigation.
- The Shadowy Business of Proxy Voting
Local political observers call out the 'proxy convention' system for allowing unelected outsiders to hijack political representation.
- Town Turns on Revivalist's 'Personal Abuse'
A visiting evangelist’s attempts to shame locals into piety backfire, leading the paper to call his tent-revival methods 'of no benefit to the community.'
- Railroad Monopoly Challenged in Court
Chief Justice Greene rules against Northern Pacific's attempts to block competitors from their lines.
- The City Hall Bond Gamble
Aberdeen is rushing to saddle the city with an $80,000 debt—but do the taxpayers understand the fine print?
- The Lawless Frontier
Violence on the Northern Pacific railroad line signals a looming safety crisis as massive construction crews arrive in the Cascades.
- The Struggle for the Panama Portage
A power struggle between railroad titans over a critical transit monopoly leaves the Pacific Mail Steamship Company reeling.
- The Governor’s Tightrope Walk During the Anti-Chinese Riots
How local officials navigated the tense atmosphere in Seattle before the arrival of federal troops in 1885.
- The Struggle for a Fire-Safe City
Early Seattleites grapple with the slow, expensive process of organizing a volunteer fire department to protect a rapidly growing town.
- Pittsburgh Signs Seattle's Reserved Pitcher Kid Camp
When the Pittsburg club snatched a local star right out of the Seattle reserve list, it sparked a furious debate over labor rights and corporate greed in the early days of professional ball.
- Fairhaven Buys Itself a Mill, and Seventy Jobs
Residents pledged $1,700 toward a shingle and lumber plant that promised a monthly payroll and a new dry house.
- The Ship Canal Double-Cross at the Democratic Convention
Seattle's delegates went to Olympia ready to die on the canal plank. Their own campaign manager had already sold them out.
- A Woman Campaigner Sells Hartley's Logging-Camp Story
Mrs. W. A. Burleigh, a Seattle Republican operative, brought the governor's race to Kennewick's Commercial Club—and a candidate who refused the union label.
- The Unsung Pioneers Clearing the Skagit River
While the territory hailed the opening of the Skagit Valley to navigation, the men bankrolling the arduous labor of clearing the massive log jam were left bankrupt.
- The Anti-Catholic Crusade That Filled a Seattle Hall
In 1895, an overflow crowd packed a Masonic hall on Pike Street to hear the American Protective Association promise a nativist 'second grand army' against the Catholic Church.
- The Streetcar That Would Wake Olympia: A $250,000 Bet on Electric Rails to Tumwater Falls
Olympia's gas and electric companies merge, buy up the Deschutes waterfalls, and float gold bonds to run the first electric cars between town and Tumwater.
- The Railroad Says It Has a Dock in Seattle and No Way to Reach It
Thomas F. Oakes tells Seattle's Chamber of Commerce that the Pacific steamship line is British-owned, that the Northern Pacific's own waterfront dock is useless without track connections — and that the city should help solve the problem.
- The South Seattle Cabin Murder Goes to Trial
William A. Wilcox's jury is finally seated after thirty veniremen and a defense blizzard of motions; the state opens with a story of chloroform, a stocking, and a dead mother on the South Seattle hillside.
- The City That Forgot How to Ride: Seattle’s Battle for Short-Term Streetcar Franchises
In May 1899, the Seattle Star warned that granting long-term monopolies to street railway companies would leave the city trapped with obsolete technology and inflated prices. The paper argued fiercely for short-term grants to keep corporations accountable—a debate that echoes in today’s transit infrastructure battles.
- The Plague at the Doorstep: Seattle’s Battle Against Smallpox in 1877
As smallpox ravages Port Orchard and Salmon Bay, the city's Health Officer takes drastic quarantine measures against Indigenous communities, highlighting the fragile public health infrastructure of early Seattle.
- Seattle Shut Every School to Stop Scarlet Fever
In May 1895 the health board ordered public, private and parochial schools closed, then ran into questions about quarantine, teachers' salaries and who would pay for a contagious-disease hospital.
- The $5,000 Wager That Sent a Man Around the World With Nothing
Paul Jones reaches Seattle with $300 left to earn, a paper suit on his back, and a Boston bet that has already carried him through Japan and the Suez Canal.
- The Dead Horses That Taught Tacoma How to Raise Sunken Ships
A Tacoma patent company says its collapsible air bags can lift wrecks from the sea floor—a trick supposedly inspired by a bloated boatload of horses in the Ohio River. Investors are already fighting over the fortune.
- A Revolver at the Polls: Seattle’s Republican Primary Erupts
Seattle’s Republican primaries collapsed into shouting, challenged voters, fake tickets and a police chief drawing his revolver to declare the polls open.