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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 7 |
| 1858 | 11 |
| 1859 | 4 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 15 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 4 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 10 |
| 1876 | 145 |
| 1877 | 114 |
| 1878 | 98 |
| 1879 | 17 |
| 1880 | 24 |
| 1882 | 16 |
| 1883 | 108 |
| 1884 | 46 |
| 1885 | 67 |
| 1886 | 36 |
| 1887 | 33 |
| 1888 | 29 |
| 1889 | 87 |
| 1890 | 31 |
| 1891 | 110 |
| 1892 | 236 |
| 1893 | 171 |
| 1894 | 148 |
| 1895 | 139 |
| 1897 | 7 |
| 1898 | 12 |
| 1899 | 38 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 67 |
| 1904 | 49 |
| 1905 | 29 |
| 1907 | 11 |
| 1908 | 88 |
| 1909 | 111 |
| 1910 | 14 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1912 | 1 |
| 1914 | 39 |
| 1915 | 63 |
| 1916 | 62 |
| 1917 | 36 |
| 1918 | 10 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1923 | 19 |
| 1924 | 34 |
| 1925 | 3 |
2,419 stories matching river
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- Snohomish, 1898: A Ferry Claim Becomes a Booster's Dream City
A promotional tour of the inland Puget Sound town traces its founding by I.C. Ferguson, its lumber and fishing wages, and the railroad that turned a river landing into a self-described city of homes.
- The Log Jam That Held Back the Skagit
Settlers bet their savings on cutting a channel through a massive timber jam—and begged Sound steamboat captains to link the Skagit to Seattle.
- The Engineer Who Tamed the Tides: Col. Wilson’s Blueprint for Snohomish’s Future
A master engineer presents a radical plan to dredge the Columbia and Willamette rivers, promising to unlock Seattle's potential by reshaping the very geography of the Pacific Northwest.
- The River That Wasn't: Kennewick’s Lonely Fight to Open the Snake
While Portland looked the other way, Kennewick businessmen pooled their own money to dredge rapids and build docks, betting the town's future on a water route that never came.
- A Sinking Buggy, a Borrowed Team, and a Reservation About to Open
In 1892 a newspaperman packed his wife and infant into a rickety buggy to cross the soon-to-open Colville Reservation, fording the Kettle River and leaning on Native families along the way.
- The Great Stuck River Jam: A Battle Over Water and Land
In a tense standoff on the White River, Pierce County cattlemen illegally dammed the waterway to protect their pastures, forcing King County officials to ride out with Winchester rifles to avert a violent conflict.
- The Towns That Were Only on the Map
A federal engineer surveyed the Okanogan in 1895 and recommended improving the river. What he described was a mining country waiting for a boom that had already gone bust.
- Ice Brings the River Fleet to a Standstill
A brutal early cold snap froze the Pend Oreille, halting steamboats, forcing mail onto sleighs, and stranding crews and freight.
- The Open River Was Supposed to Pay Dividends. Was Anyone Counting?
A year after the Celilo Canal opened, the Courier-Reporter asked whether the Inland Empire would actually use the river—and bragged that Kennewick was already the Columbia’s busiest freight town this side of Celilo.
- A Pioneer's 40-Year Fight for Land the Indian Wars Took
Isaiah W. Bryant's 1895 petition traced how he fled his White River donation claim during the 1855-56 war, lost his savings, and waited decades for the land office to act.
- The Great Skagit Jam: How Local Men Tried to Unplug the River
In 1876, a massive logjam blocked the Skagit River for miles. While officials debated expensive dredging projects, local loggers took matters into their own hands with picks and dynamite.
- 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.
- The Cedar River Siege: How a Power Mogul Tried to Steal Seattle’s Water
Seattle Star exposes the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company’s dirty game: using fake environmental panic to block municipal water rights and crush competition.
- Seattle's 1895 Warning: Secure Cedar River Water Before Private Speculators Do
City Engineer R. H. Thomson says Seattle's overworked pumps cannot survive another summer and urges the city to buy the Cedar River watershed, dams and reservoir sites while it still can.
- The Log-Jam Monopoly: Who Controls a Western Washington River?
When Joseph Doyle’s logs were trapped inside a private boom company’s platted stretch of the Skokomish River, he sued—and put the whole question of river monopolies and public waterways on trial in Shelton.
- Taxation Without Infrastructure: The Skagit River Fight of 1880
While Washington Territory sent tax dollars to Washington D.C., federal officials offered little in return, forcing local residents to build their own river infrastructure.
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- The River That Swallowed a Steamboat: A Brave Attempt to Reach Snohomish Falls
Twenty-five passengers and tons of freight battled the treacherous Snoqualmie River on the steamer *Columbia*, only to be stopped by a massive landslide just miles from their destination.
- Canoeing the Queets: Promise and Dispossession on the Olympic Peninsula
An 1892 travelogue celebrates homesteaders in the Queets River valley while arguing that Native hunters should be confined to the reservation.
- The Fight Over the Wishkah River
Prominent landowners seek an injunction to halt the surveying and platting of tide lands, citing concerns over potential river obstruction and property rights.
- Defying the 'Sassy' Indians on the Skagit
A party of explorers ventures deep into Snohomish's wild interior, clashing with local tribes and staking claims on land 'no white women live above.'
- They Said Seattle's Ship Canal Was Hogging the Money. The Appropriations Bill Said Otherwise.
A Pierce County Democratic plank accuses Washington's senators of starving Northwest rivers and harbors to fund the Lake Washington canal. A Seattle paper answers with receipts — $2.3 million for the Columbia, roughly $100,000 for the canal — and an old rivalry with Portland and Tacoma underneath.
- The Struggle to Clear the Skagit River
Loggers and settlers face a massive, shifting timber jam on the Skagit River, with locals debating the impact of land ownership on the future of the valley.
- Steamboat Commerce Returns to the Columbia
The purchase of steamers by the Willamette and Columbia Rivers Towing Company signals a new era for river freight in Kennewick.
Also about this, in other words
- The Unpredictable Fury of the White River
For decades, pioneers in the White River Valley have battled shifting channels and massive log jams that threaten to drown the farmland—and now, a desperate, explosive attempt to save the riverbank has left the community divided.
- The River Eats the Office: A Snohomish Flood Story
In January 1877, the Snohomish River rose so high that it swallowed the rear of the Northern Star newspaper office, threatening to wash away the town's press along with its ink.
- The River That Could Drown a Valley
A brewing legal and ecological battle in the White River valley pits farmers against a railway company, as shifting waters threaten to swallow millions in property.
- A Newlywed Killed by a Cottonwood on the White River
John Scott had been married only four weeks when an undermined tree fell across the log jam where he was working near Auburn.
- The River Fog Scare
A young man goes missing on the Columbia River after his launch engine fails, triggering a town-wide search.
- Who Owns the Riverfront?
Senator Harry Lane warns that private interests are threatening the public's right to access the Columbia River, urging cities to secure their shorelines for the future.
- Engineering the Columbia River
A federal river and harbor bill brings $79,000 to navigate the treacherous rapids between Rock Island and Priest Rapids.
- A Dive Into the Black River, and Two Brothers Still at Sea
A young Swiss immigrant bathing at the Renton landing strikes a submerged snag and drowns — while his two brothers are aboard a ship from Europe, not yet knowing.