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1. The Plan to Ring Puget Sound With Forts—and Put Big Guns on Magnolia Bluff

   A federal fortification scheme would turn Magnolia Bluff, Admiralty Inlet and Marrowstone Point into a defensive ring around the new Port Orchard navy yard—if Congress paid for it.

   Mar 14, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMagnolia Bluff, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

2. The State Draws a Line Along Seattle’s Waterfront

   In 1896, Olympia fixed the harbor boundary from West Seattle to Meadow Point, mapped new Duwamish and Salmon Bay waterways, and cleared the way to sell tide lands.

   Jul 12, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money

3. A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish

   A federal injunction stops the Point Roberts packing company from taking sockeye while the cannery argues the reef was never reserved to the Lummi—and that 130 jobs hang in the balance.

   Jun 20, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPoint Roberts, Whatcom CountyFollow the Money · Exclusion & Resistance

4. Seattle's Fight to Land the Army Post at Magnolia Bluff

   In 1895, the Chamber of Commerce touted a federal garrison as a monthly windfall—if Tacoma did not steal it first.

   Feb 16, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

5. Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise

   As 1891 closed, the capital city counted $3 million in new buildings, a record bridge, electric lights and new rail lines — and predicted 50,000 residents within a decade.

   Dec 31, 1891The Olympia TribuneOlympia, Thurston CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust · City Hall

6. A Seattle Expedition Sets Out to Map Mount Rainier's Glaciers—and Find a Hidden Volcano

   Major Ingraham's party leaves Seattle for three weeks on the mountain, hoping to name glaciers, test mineral springs, and locate a smoking volcano seen from the foothills.

   Jul 13, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

7. The Salmon War at Point Roberts: Lummi Tribe Battles Cannery Giant Over Treaty Fishing Rights

   A federal judge is set to decide whether the Alaska Packing Association's fish traps illegally block the salmon run, pitting Indigenous treaty rights against a quarter-million-dollar cannery industry.

   Jun 23, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPoint Roberts, Whatcom CountyFollow the Money · Exclusion & Resistance

8. The Town Where Horses Wore Wooden Shoes

   La Conner grew slowly on a rocky knoll in the Skagit delta, diked its tidal flats, and shipped out hay by the ton—while its horses clumped through spring mud in wooden moccasins.

   Apr 11, 1892The Olympia TribuneLa Conner, Skagit CountyBoom & Bust

9. A Railroad Rate Cut Redrew the Northwest's Trade Map

   The Northern Pacific's new freight tariff aimed to make Puget Sound the gateway for Eastern Washington and Idaho—shutting out St. Paul and San Francisco.

   Apr 10, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

10. The Forgotten Fort Lands of Puget Sound

    A Washington congressman fought to open tiny abandoned military reservations at Gig Harbor and Point Roberts to homesteaders. The House shut him down.

    Mar 11, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerGig Harbor, Pierce CountyFollow the Money

11. 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.

    Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

12. Two Men Asked to Test a Seattle Schooner. Then They Tried to Kill Its Captain.

    A would-be buyer and his genteel companion lured Capt. Jud La Moure into Puget Sound, attacked him with a lead sounding weight, and demanded his gold watch—until he produced a hidden revolver.

    Jul 21, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

13. Seattle Offers a Bluff to Win the Army's Guns

    Gen. Otis wants a garrison on Magnolia Bluff to guard Puget Sound — but the land the government thought it already owned has been quietly claimed out from under it, and Fort Townsend is running dry.

    Mar 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

14. The Last Stand at Point Edmonds

    A stubborn brickyard owner defends his property against the Great Northern Railway with nothing but a shotgun and legal grit.

    Feb 27, 1891The Seattle Post-IntelligencerEdmonds, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

15. They Climbed Rainier First—and Slept in a Sulphur-Scented Ice Cave

    In 1870, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached Mount Rainier's summit after a brutal 10½-hour climb, then spent a freezing night beside volcanic steam vents.

    Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

16. The Sewer Under Beacon Hill

    After quicksand, floods and a costly detour, Seattle’s South Tunnel is weeks from completion—and somehow still inside its $100,000 budget.

    Feb 18, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

17. Newport’s Railroad Future Takes Shape in a $150,000 Yard

    The Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad unveils plans for terminal yards, depots, switches and a loop through old and new Newport—and west-side farmers lobby for the line down the Calispel valley.

    Mar 5, 1908The Newport Miner (Newport, WA) 1899-CurrentNewport, Pend Oreille CountyBoom & Bust

18. The Industrial Slaughter at the Edge of the State

    How a remote peninsula became the center of a massive salmon-canning boom.

    Aug 7, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPoint Roberts, Point Roberts, Whatcom CountyWork & Pay

19. A Yacht's Wild Ride Through a Puget Sound Gale

    The Rainier survived 75-mile squalls, dragged anchors and a split jib on its run from Victoria to Seattle.

    May 31, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle harbor, SeattleDisasters

20. A Church Scandal Erupts in a Seattle Libel Trial

    M. H. Nichols stood accused of criminally libeling Presiding Elder T. B. Ford. The defense spent the day trading rumors, old grudges, and one complaint about the prosecutor's booming voice.

    Feb 1, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

21. The 3,249-Acre Map That Laid Out Seattle’s Waterfront

    In 1895, King County appraisers filed the first full plat of Seattle’s tide lands—reserving broad rail avenues, harbor blocks and a street grid that still shadows the modern waterfront.

    Mar 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyFollow the Money · Boom & Bust

22. The Great Log Jam: How a River of Timber Threatened to Wash Away Snohomish

    A massive tow of logs broke loose near Priest Point, sparking fears of a disaster that could have swept away the town's waterfront—and highlighting the precarious nature of life in the logging boomtown.

    Apr 7, 1877The Northern StarPriest Point, Snohomish, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

23. Before the Next High Tide

    An 1878 editorial warns that hauling gravel and pulling drift logs off the Point Hudson spit has already helped flood Port Townsend twice—and calls for an ordinance before the winter storms return.

    Oct 6, 1876Puget Sound Weekly ArgusPoint Hudson, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyFollow the Money · City Hall

24. When the Ice Broke: Newport's Steamboats Reconnect the Pend Oreille

    With the river finally open to Box Canyon, two navigation companies coordinated schedules at Newport, linking trains, mail and lumber camps to the upper Pend Oreille.

    Feb 4, 1909The Newport Miner (Newport, WA) 1899-CurrentNewport, Pend Oreille CountyBoom & Bust

25. The Centennial Parade and the Future of the National Guard

    A look back at the grand military display in New York as a blueprint for rapid mobilization on the Pacific Coast.

    May 1, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

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