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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 3 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
24 stories matching perplex
- The Silent Epidemic: Diphtheria in 1880 Seattle
A harrowing, vivid account of the early stages of diphtheria, a 'perplexing theme' of illness that terrorized families and baffled medical practitioners in the Washington Territory.
- The Daytime Light Mystery
Citizens flood city hall with calls wondering why electric lights are burning in broad daylight.
- 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 Fight Over Suffrage for Mixed-Race Citizens
Territorial legislators debate whether citizens of mixed white and Indigenous heritage should be granted the right to vote.
- The Strange Case of the 'Woman' in the Saloon
A perplexing encounter in a Seattle saloon ignites a neighborhood scandal, revealing the tensions of gender nonconformity in the city's early frontier days.
- Conflicting Advice from the O-W, R. N. Company
The town is perplexed by contradictory expert demonstrations from the railroad—one telling them to raise hogs, the other telling them to stop using lard in baking.
- The Day a Cannon Changed History at the Cascades
Before he was a Civil War legend, Philip Sheridan fended off a regional uprising with a single, deafening shot.
- The Mystery of the Silent Man
A deaf and mute man, unable to communicate, wanders the mill districts of Seattle, leaving local authorities perplexed and the public uneasy.
- The Brutality of the Walla Walla Penitentiary
A critical look at the failing 'cell system' and the questionable state industries in Washington’s state prison.
- The Great Railway Pipe Dream
A century and a half ago, speculators and dreamers were already busy mapping out the future of Seattle's rail lines and debating the superiority of Puget Sound over Canadian ports.
- The Price of the 'Boom' in 1885 Seattle
While the city rode a wave of prosperity, locals were already feeling the strain of rapid expansion, speculation, and the 'dull times' that inevitably follow a growth spurt.
- A Broken Heart, Then a Wedding: Port Townsend's Breach-of-Promise Plaintiff Marries Again
Mary E. Bellinger sued James Craswell for $10,000 over a broken engagement; now, while the appeal is pending, she has married Albert E. Stevens of Vancouver, B.C.
- 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 Three-Year-Old Who Stowed Away to Gilman
When a toddler wandered away from his Second and Lenora home, he didn't just get lost—he boarded a train and embarked on an accidental adventure to the coal mining town of Issaquah.
- The Struggle to Save the Harbor
Engineers and locals debate the best way to keep Seattle's waterfront from choking on silt and debris in 1876.
- A Judicial Candidate Finds Apathy at Kelly's Hall — and Waste in County Offices
John B. Slater came to Newport to explain the new primary law. Few showed up, but he still had a warning about deputies doing the work while elected officials collected the pay.
- The Great Swimmin' Hole Scandal
A group of local boys face the judge for skinny-dipping in the Columbia, sparking a call for a proper municipal dressing house.
- The Strange Case of the Seized Horse
A Port Townsend magistrate attempts to settle a private debt by seizing a horse that didn't belong to the debtor, sparking a procedural standoff.
- The Boy Too Tough for the Reform School
A teenage burglar escapes Chehalis, stumps the trustees, and triggers a constitutional standoff over who must deal with an incorrigible child.
- He Walked Out of the House and Into a Whirlpool of Whispers
A well-liked Spokane County farmer vanishes near Mica, and forty neighbors turn the countryside upside down hunting for him — but the deeper they dig, the stranger the trail becomes.
- 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.
- The Powerhouse Killing in Hamilton
A quarrel over steam, firewood and a dollar a day left an electric-light manager dead, a young night watchman charged with murder, and a town talking of lynching.
- The Prickly Pear That Changed a Life: How a Boy’s Prank in Iowa Sent Him to Seattle
A local resident reveals the bizarre chain of events that led him from an Iowa farm to the Pacific Northwest, starting with a screwdriver and a pair of boots.
- A Stagecoach Ride Into the Last Paradise of Bunch Grass
A correspondent survives a headfirst plunge into an icy creek to report on the new stage route, the boomtown of Okanogan, and the railroad the Big Bend is begging for.