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Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1904 | 2 |
26 stories matching plausibl
- The Delegate Who Sold Seattle’s Future for Five Thousand Dollars
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch accuses Territorial Delegate George Freeman Willard of betraying Seattle’s interests—specifically the mud flats of Duwamish Bay—to secure his own political and financial gain, while simultaneously accepting bribes from rival railroad companies.
- A Seattle Utopia Sold in One-Cent Shares
A society of unemployed men pools its wages and plots a Bellamy-style commonwealth of railroads, coal mines and common tables — starting from $5 of capital and 500 one-cent shares.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- The Seattle Labor Movement Breaks with Anarchism
After years of tension, Seattle's working-class leadership officially severs ties with a radical faction that openly celebrated the Chicago Haymarket-era bombings.
- The City’s Grasping Monopoly
Tacoma’s editorial board calls out corporate greed and local political complacency regarding the city’s power infrastructure.
- The Great Manastache Mining Hoax
A town's feverish dreams of gold were shattered when a slick assayer fled with their hopes and their money.
- School Board Debt Scandal
Walla Walla residents head to the polls to rectify the school board's unauthorized debt, but skeptics wonder who really benefits from the higher interest rates.
- The Tragedy of the Forgotten Mine
A suspected mining accident in Whatcom County may finally explain the mysterious disappearance of four Finnish laborers months earlier.
- The Cloroform Clue in the Felling Murder
A specific bottle shape found at a murder scene leads investigators to a Tacoma drug store, renewing interest in a local killing.
- The Bank Wrecker’s Failed Empire
After swindling depositors to fund a coast-wide banking trust, H. St. John Dix faces ten years in the penitentiary.
- The Mystery of the Sands
A decomposed body found bound and weighted on the beach near Bay Center leaves investigators with a gruesome crime and no suspect.
- The Myth of the Lazy Laborer
A Seattle newspaper editorial in 1878 berates unemployed men for refusing to repair flood-damaged dykes, framing poverty as a moral failing despite local economic instability.
- The Tyranny of the Rails
For years, Seattle merchants have endured the 'thralldom' of the Northern Pacific Railroad; now, local business leaders are looking to the Canadian Pacific to break the monopoly.
- The Smooth Talker of Tacoma
A persuasive con man leaves a trail of bamboozled businessmen and empty wallets.
- The Ghost Crime of the Head of the Bay
A man turned himself into the sheriff for a murder that happened only in his own whiskey-soaked mind.
- The Girl Who Ran Away: A Battle for Custody in Whatcom County
When W.M. Hart returned from British Columbia with a young girl he had sent to school, he sparked a public feud with her father, revealing the complex realities of child welfare and family law in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Romantic Ruin of a Seattle Dreamer
A young woman in 1878 Seattle finds her intellectual ambitions derailed by a fleeting, unequal affair with a local 'villain.'
- The Mysterious Killing of 'Tex' Bagwell
A well-known gambler is found dead from a rifle shot in North Yakima, leaving behind a web of suspicion and a widow's former husband.
- The Tides That Move the Wells of Ocosta
Early settlers discover a natural phenomenon where groundwater levels mimic the Pacific tides.
- The Mayor-Elect's 'Backbone'
Tacoma's mayor-elect quashes a persistent rumor that a local political powerbroker was trying to control his municipal appointments.
- A Rancher Vanished to Alaska—and a Secret Son Came Looking
Twenty years after abandoning a wife and son in New York, F. Post fled Lake Stevens for Alaska just as his past caught up with him. Then came word of a shipwreck.
- The Canal That Could Freeze England: A Climate Warning from the Isthmus of Panama
In 1877, Seattle’s press warned that digging a canal through Central America might divert the Gulf Stream, plunging Europe into an ice age—a bizarre but prescient look at early environmental anxiety.
- The Intellectual Con Artist of the Fife Hotel
A well-dressed man claiming to be the former secretary to Sir John Macdonald flees Tacoma after leaving behind a trail of worthless checks.
- The Water Monopoly Standing Between Yakima and Its Best Orchards
A fruit grower warns that the Washington Irrigation Company’s control of reservoir sites could block the high-line ditch needed to open Yakima County’s frost-safe uplands to orchards.
- The Politics of Snake Oil
A scathing editorial comparing the Populist movement to medical quackery and the sensationalism of the era's 'wonder books.'
Also about this, in other words
- The Scent of 'Unmarked Coin' at the Capitol
As local option battles intensify, rumors of a slush fund designed to sway legislators circulate through Olympia.
- A Scantling Scuffle at the Boom
A simmering dispute over local timber booms erupts in violence at Chenoise Creek.
- The Solar Plexus Surprise
A local storekeeper's attempt to act tough with a schoolgirl ends in a swift, painful lesson.
- The City's Legalized Blackmail
A jury exposes the Seattle Police Department for shaking down women, proving that 'reform' administration was just a veneer.