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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 7 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1904 | 2 |
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36 stories matching roadb
- The Sheriff vs. The Railroad
When the Northern Pacific Railroad refused to pay taxes in 1882, the local sheriff didn't just file a complaint—he seized their locomotives.
- The Milwaukee Railway's Massive Industrial Expansion
A quarter-million-dollar contract aims to connect Old Town to the city's industrial waterfront, signaling heavy infrastructure growth.
- A Fireman Died in a Flood-Swollen Culvert. Now His Widow Wants the Railroad to Pay.
E. G. Cole left a widow and three daughters, including six-month-old twins. His estate is suing the Oregon Improvement Company for $12,480, alleging the company ran a train through a flooded, defective roadbed.
- Before Breakfast at the Wilson Tract
The Olympia Light and Power Company sent a crew at dawn to cut a roadbed through Col. Ben Turner's land. He vowed to fence it right back up.
- The Sabotage of Black Lake
A malicious attempt to breach a dike and flood the Olympia countryside by draining a massive volume of water into the Deschutes River was narrowly averted.
- The Bootblack Ban: City Cracks Down on Alley Hustlers
Chief of Police ordered to serve notices to all bootblacks occupying city alleys; merchants and workers clash over public space.
- A Hillside Fell Into the Columbia—and Took the Railroad With It
Forty acres of mountain slid into the Columbia near Marcus, wrecking miles of the Spokane Falls & Northern and cutting Stevens County off from its markets.
- Fortifying the Mountain Pass
Great Northern Railroad crews race against time to shield the Cascade division from winter avalanches.
- The Lovers’ Lane of Snohomish
A newly constructed plank road, intended for industrial timber transit, becomes an unlikely promenade for the town's romantic youth.
- The Sliding Hill: Railroad Abandoning Prosser
A shifting, unstable hill beneath the tracks forces the Northern Pacific to build an expensive eight-mile detour, threatening to bypass the town of Prosser.
- Tragedy on the Sound Shoreline
A fatal landslide on the Great Northern coast line buries a railway laborer alive, highlighting the recurring peril of unstable terrain along the Puget Sound.
- The Great Deluge of 1891
Heavy winter rains transform Seattle’s rivers into raging torrents, washing away rail lines, bridges, and barns across the region.
- A Railroad Man Promises Tacoma the East in Two Years
The North Coast road's division counsel says trains will be rolling out of the Cascades into Tacoma within twenty-four months — assuming the surveyors pick the right pass.
- The Great Flood of 1888
Torrential rains and melting snow paralyze the Snohomish and Stillaguamish valleys, destroying bridges and disrupting rail travel to Monte Cristo.
- The Absurd Scheme to Build a Railway to the Top of Mount Rainier
When a coal mine failed, desperate land speculators proposed a preposterous tourist railroad to the summit of the mountain to boost property values.
- Forging the Iron Path Through the Cascades
A look at the grueling engineering feat of the Great Northern Railway’s passage across the mountain divide.
- The Unearned Empire of the Northern Pacific
Citizens and county commissioners clash with the Northern Pacific Railroad over land grants and tax evasion in Lewis County.
- Old Town Residents Organize for Electric Rail Connection
A determined group of citizens in the original Yakima site is grading a new side-track, hoping to lure a company into connecting their district to North Yakima via electric rail.
- Ten Strangers at the Tunnel: Is the Union Pacific Coming Back to Olympia?
A corps of engineers has been quietly pacing the unfinished Tumwater tunnel, refusing to say who sent them or what they want — while heavy rain eats away at the abandoned work.
- The Mystery of the Creeping Rail
A phantom force is physically shifting the interurban line's tracks toward Tacoma, baffling engineers and causing havoc with the electrical system.
- The Iron Road Through the Wilderness
By 1891, the rush for transcontinental rail connections was transforming the remote timberlands of Lewis and Pacific counties, promising to turn quiet river valleys into bustling industrial hubs.
- A Nighttime Train Wreck Near Chehalis
A northbound express train derails after striking a steer, leading to a miraculous escape for the crew and passengers.
- The Renton Addition: Seattle’s 1889 Speculative Gold Rush
As property developers paved the way for Seattle's expansion, one man's high-stakes sale of the 'cream' of Beacon Hill real estate signaled a city-wide frenzy for land and infrastructure.
- A Railroad Dream to Steal Tacoma's Trade
An electric road from Sidney to Vaughn, stitched together with volunteer labor and boat connections, promised to pull the upper Sound's commerce away from Tacoma and into Seattle.
- The Miracle of the Giant Powder Blast
A laborer describes his harrowing journey through the air after a catastrophic industrial explosion near Puyallup.