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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
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| 1865 | 1 |
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| 1883 | 4 |
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137 stories matching readili
- The City Hall Bond Crisis of 1893
Facing a financial panic, Seattle's mayor proposes an experimental fix to keep public works moving and labor employed.
- The Missing Will That Would Have Given Seattle a Library
Henry Yesler's widow and two doctors are arrested, accused of burning a will that left the pioneer's fortune—and his mansion—to the city.
- Nineteen Buildings Gone Before Breakfast
With no fire department and only buckets, the Kitsap County seat of Sidney watched its entire business district burn to the ground in three hours — then promised to rebuild as Seattle had.
- The Great Seattle Railroad Swindle
How corporate speculators and land rings bypassed honest stockholders and plundered the future of the city's waterfront.
- The Judge Who Played Faro: Port Townsend’s Bar Association Moves to Impeach Morris Sachs
In a stunning display of civic outrage, local attorneys and property owners present sworn affidavits to the state legislature alleging that Superior Court Judge Morris B. Sachs regularly gambled on illegal faro games and prejudged cases before hearing them.
- The Inspector's Lost Son Was Working at Providence Hospital
Edward Byrnes Jr., abducted from Brooklyn as a boy, was found at Providence Hospital in Seattle and says he was stolen to punish his father, the famous New York police superintendent.
- A Midnight Knock, a Hidden Fortune, and a Brutal Beating on Vashon Island
Two men demand an old rancher's money, bind and club him, then ransack his cabin for a cache of cash. Seattle police arrest a suspect—and then the victim's wife.
- The Bank Robbers' Wild Escape in Ellensburg
Two notorious robbers jailed in Ellensburg staged a daring jailbreak, shot a local boy, and held a family hostage during a chaotic afternoon standoff.
- Railroad Giant Declares Bankruptcy
The Northern Pacific Railroad has been placed into receivership, signaling a major shift in Northwest transit and land development.
- The Tide Land Grab: How Seattle's Future Was Sold Before It Was Even a State
As Washington Territory inches toward statehood in early 1889, speculators are already circling the waterfront, buying up oyster beds and timber rights in a desperate rush to claim the city's most valuable real estate.
- 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.
- Ida May Love Went to Sea as 'Dan McArdle'
A Whatcom newlywed walked out on her husband, her skirts and her name to serve seven weeks aboard the warship Monterey — and the Post-Intelligencer tracked her to a Leavenworth dance hall, where she was still talking about 'us boys.'
- The City’s Grasping Monopoly
Tacoma’s editorial board calls out corporate greed and local political complacency regarding the city’s power infrastructure.
- Tacoma’s Electric Light War
A private power company accuses the city of selling light below cost to drive it out of business—and of a local editor gagging the story because he runs his own hotel plant.
- The River's Secret: Eli Anderson's Last Celebration
Eli Anderson, a shift boss on the tunnel, disappeared after a night of celebration. Months later, his body surfaced near Blueslide—and the mystery only deepened.
- The Confidence Man of Washington Street
A grifter exploited local tensions to con Chinese merchants out of $600 under the guise of buying off a prosecutor.
- The Great Hotel Heist That Wasn't: How Seattle’s Gamblers Were Fooled by a Fake Fortune
A broken-down cardsharp named 'Splitcheck Jimmy' was tricked into stealing an envelope full of newspaper, only to be ambushed by actors in a staged robbery at the St. Denis Hotel.
- The Sanitary Crisis of 1885
Dr. J. M. W. Hedges demands immediate action on open cesspools, raw sewage, and the 'lodging house' filth threatening the health of early Seattle.
- The Price of White Labor in the Sound's Salmon Canneries
Prominent cannery man George T. Myers threatens to abandon Puget Sound if local sentiment forces him to abandon Chinese labor for white workers.
- The Dogfish Gold Rush on San Juan Island
Before tourism, local entrepreneurs on San Juan Island sought their fortune in the 'stinking' but profitable trade of extracting oil from thousands of dogfish caught in the sound.
- The Hammer in the Kitchen
A killer waited until the men left for a labor-hall meeting, then entered a Seattle house, beat Mrs. Miller and her baby to death, looted a valise, and set the place ablaze.
- The Chief’s Last Stand: A Vision of Justice Beyond the Grave
In a rare and poignant interview, Spotted Tail articulates a theology of retribution where the Great Spirit favors the Native American over the white settler in the afterlife.
- The Women Who Refused to Look Away
Tacoma’s most prominent ladies rally behind a betrayed young woman in court, challenging Seattle’s apathetic society to stand with her.
- The Church and the Union: A Moral Tug-of-War in 1887
When the Knights of Labor came under fire from the Vatican, their leader had to scramble to prove that their fight for workers wasn't a precursor to anarchy.
- The Great City Treasury Mystery
A skeptical newspaper accuses the Seattle city government of diverting public funds meant for the Lake Union sewer tunnel into private speculations.