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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 5 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1885 | 5 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 7 |
| 1893 | 8 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 5 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1914 | 2 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
84 stories matching rot
- The War on Rotting Spuds
A state agricultural expert warns farmers that the 1914 potato blight is more destructive than ever.
- The Fruit Is Rotting on the Vines While Seattle Buys California Canned Goods
A Vashon grower and the Post-Intelligencer make the case for a Puget Sound cannery before another harvest spoils on the ground.
- The Rotting Jaw: Labor’s Fight Against Deadly Phosphorus
Workers in American match factories face a horrific, disfiguring illness while the government debates banning the white phosphorus that causes it.
- The War on Rot: Kennewick's Fruit Crisis
As WWI labor shortages threaten the local harvest, an editorial demands federal intervention to preserve the region's fruit.
- The $2,000 Apple Lesson: A Walk Down Seattle's Produce Row
A farm columnist tours Seattle's commission houses on Western Avenue, where a single packing mistake cost one grower a season's profit — and offers a cautionary tale for every farmer shipping to the city.
- The Snohomish River's 'Miasma of Decay'
An 1876 editorial decries the hazardous state of the river banks, warning that stagnant water and rotting sawdust are breeding sickness in the growing town.
- The Unlucky Entrepreneur of Seattle
A hopeful man attempts to launch a steamship business in Seattle, only to be outmaneuvered by a rival and left with a rotting boat.
- Potato Market Crashes in Walla Walla Valley
Local farmers face a grim season as market demand collapses and crops suffer from rot and pests.
- Rotting Melons and Broken Markets
Kennewick strawberry farmers find themselves squeezed by commission men and failing cooperative distribution chains.
- A Perilous Fall From the Utility Pole
A local lineman narrowly avoids tragedy when a rotted pole snaps under his weight, leaving him strapped to the falling timber.
- The Ghost of the Pesbastin Creek Mining Camp
Decades after a gold rush stampede left cabins to rot, speculators are eyeing the old claims again—but local memory suggests they were never worth the effort.
- The $500 Vote: How a Spokane Judge’s Bribery Plot Exposed Seattle’s Political Rot
In the winter of 1903, Washington’s legislature was paralyzed by a scandal involving bribed senators and a desperate governor. When Representative Metcalfe revealed he was paid to vote for Judge Calkins, the resulting investigation tore through Olympia’s elite, revealing a web of corruption that threatened to define the state’s young democracy.
- Sheriff Solves 1892 Mercer Island Cabin Murder
After the mutilated body of George Richards washed ashore, a confession from an accomplice revealed a desperate struggle and a grisly disposal in Lake Washington.
- Neglect at Eighth and Lenora
Mayor Ronald intervenes in a heartbreaking case of medical neglect involving a child in a rooming house district.
- The Ghost of Fort Steilacoom: Workers Cheated Out of Their Wages
A group of laborers at the new asylum construction site speak out against contractors and commissioners who left them unpaid and used rot-prone materials.
- The Newsboys' War Against the Ledger
Tacoma’s newspaper war turns street-level as organized newsboys mobilize to block the sale of a scab publication.
- The Shadowy Business of Patent Medicines
A cynical drug clerk reveals the grisly truth behind 'medical' concoctions and the dangerous incompetence of the pharmacy trade in 1880s Seattle.
- The Woman Who Refused the Judge
A Seattle woman stands her ground in municipal court, calling out a judge's election fraud and choosing jail over a fine.
- The Struggle for the Rails: Seattle’s Economic Isolation in 1880
As the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad is sold to Henry Villard's powerful combine, local editors fear the city's economic future will be shackled to Portland's river monopoly.
- Corruption Scandal Sweeps Whatcom
Former city officials are arrested for embezzlement while the community demands a grand jury to investigate municipal rot.
- The Local Press and the Mob
A critique of Washington newspapers that refused to take a hard moral stand against lynch law.
- The Rotting Schoolhouse
A local mechanic alerts the city to a school building construction so shoddy it was doomed to collapse.
- The Anatomy of a Public Works Disaster
Engineering testimony reveals how cheap, porous bricks and massive inefficiency turned city sewer projects into money pits.
- The Ghost Town of a Pioneer's Dream
A German immigrant spends decades waiting for his Puget Sound homestead to become a metropolis, only to see the boom vanish as quickly as it arrived.
- The Grave Robbers of St. Mary’s: A Scandal in Portland
Rumors swirl that the body of a local widow was disturbed by 'outsiders' seeking a rumored cancer tumor, prompting doctors to deny the tale and friends to demand investigation.
Also about this, in other words
- The 'Ring' and the Rot: A 1872 Call for Municipal Reform
A scathing letter to the editor of the Puget Sound Dispatch exposes a culture of county-level corruption and financial mismanagement that mirrors modern political frustrations.
- The Invisible Army Under the Microscope
A scientific lecture delivered in Snohomish contemplates the origins of life, the invisible world of bacteria, and the processes of decay.
- The Hidden Hazard of the Woods
A toddler suffers horrific burns after falling into a camouflaged pit of smoldering rot.
- Arson and Betrayal at the 'Bucket of Blood'
A notorious King Street saloon is at the center of a criminal conspiracy involving insurance fraud and a fractured family business.
- The City's 'Pest House' Under Siege
A Seattie facility for contagious diseases is damaged by wayward debris from local riverfront construction.
- The Anatomy of a Political Glutton
A satirical 1885 editorial dissecting the sudden, transformation of humble private citizens into greedy 'Ins' once they secure public office in Washington territory.
- Tragic Industrial Accident Claims Life of Local Butcher
A worker dies after suffering catastrophic burns in a workplace accident at a slaughterhouse.
- A Father's Fatal Dash into the Flames
A Walla Walla warehouse manager dies after rushing into a burning building to save his children.