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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 4 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
25 stories matching slab
- The Ghost Ship of Seattle’s Waterfront
A derelict bark ship, once a billboard for local businesses, is buried in sawdust and slabs to become the foundation of a new shoreline.
- The Horror in the Brush
Surveyors working in the woods of West Seattle discover a yellow trunk containing a gruesome, blood-stained discovery that suggests a dark crime.
- A Holiday Tragedy on the Seattle Trestle
A Norwegian farmhand, coming into town for the Christmas season, meets a grim end after losing his way on the railroad tracks.
- A Deadly Prank at the Blue Front
A malicious false alarm of a plague quarantine triggers a fatal panic in a Seattle dance hall.
- The Wharf That Ate Its Workers: Seattle’s First Major Infrastructure Failure
In September 1876, a newly built lumber wharf in Seattle collapsed under the weight of its own laborers, sending Chinese workers and timber plunging into the Duwamish River. The disaster exposed the rotting reality of territorial construction and the precarious lives of immigrant labor.
- The Gold Rush Comes to Town: Klondikers Unload Millions in Seattle
As the first steamers of the season dock at Pier 52, miners from Dawson City bring fortunes in gold dust and nuggets, turning Seattle’s waterfront into a temporary vault for the Yukon's wealth.
- The Body in the Hen House: An Unidentified Murder Near Eagle Harbor
A well-dressed stranger was found half-burned in an abandoned Kitsap County farmhouse, with only spectacles, a corkscrew, and a torn newspaper to say who he was.
- The Hidden Destroyer of Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1877, Seattle property owners faced a silent maritime menace: a wood-boring mollusk called the 'Teredo' that could collapse a wharf from the inside out.
- Abandoned by the County: The Price of Survival for Injured Laborers
Two men, broken by the dangerous work of the local mills, were left destitute and homeless when the county authorities refused to bear the cost of their recovery.
- Dirty Tricks, 1892: Yakima's Candidate for Governor Fights Back
A Seattle paper accused the Democratic nominee of fleeing his debts and defrauding orphans. Snively's supporters called it a Republican smear—and produced letters to prove it.
- The Dangerous Gap at Yesler’s Wharf
A gaping, unguarded hole in a major Seattle pier leaves two citizens injured and sparks a call for municipal accountability in the 1870s.
- The Printer and the Preacher: A Life Between Worlds
Rev. Peter C. Stanup, a Puyallup tribal member, reflects on his journey from the reservation school to the pulpit and the printing press.
- A Community's Last Act for a Murdered Man
When immigrant Julius Scherbring was killed for his meager savings, his German countrymen stepped in to ensure he received a proper burial rather than a pauper’s grave.
- Building a Seawall to Save the Waterfront
A proposal to use excavated earth from new construction to extend the city's harbor, protecting the waterfront while expanding valuable land.
- Tragedy at Hart's Lumber Mill
A worker fell into the water while cutting logs and was trapped beneath the heavy timber; the incident was ruled an accidental death.
- The High Cost of Keeping Warm in Pioneer Seattle
As Seattle's population climbed toward 45,000 in 1880, local leaders sounded the alarm on the soaring price of firewood and looked to the untapped coal mines of the region for a heating revolution.
- The Waterfront Fugitives of Milton
When two men were caught butchering stolen beef, a routine arrest at the water's edge turned into a desperate aquatic brawl.
- High Winds Spark Multiple Fires Across Tacoma
A day of high winds kept city fire crews busy across several neighborhoods, threatening industrial sites and residential homes.
- Disaster Strikes the Tacoma Mill
A major industrial fire destroys the machine shop at the Tacoma mill, resulting in $26,000 in damages.
- A New Industry: Grindstone Quarry Near Maple Valley Begins Shipping
The first grindstones produced in Washington or Oregon are now being turned out from a quarry near Maple Valley, employing eighteen men and shipping to Seattle.
- The Sawmill Man’s Dream of Refinement
A boisterous sawmill owner, caught drunk and disorderly in Seattle, offers a surprisingly poetic vision of domesticity to a judge in 1878.
- Turning Sawdust into Stone
An innovative German industrial method promises to transform Aberdeen's abundant sawmill waste into fireproof, durable building bricks.
- The Company Town That Built Itself: Inside Port Gamble's Lumber Empire
In 1876, the Puget Mill Company turned a remote bay into a model industrial community, complete with its own fleet, brass band, and company-owned housing.
- The Mill That Built a Town: Inside Port Discovery’s Industrial Heart
A rare look inside the massive lumber operation on Port Discovery Bay, where 60 men worked around the clock to feed the timber boom of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Pride of the Frontier Saloon
An 1877 profile of a Snohomish establishment boasting a polished maple bar and 'quiet, gentlemanly' service.
Also about this, in other words
- The Hard Pan Tax Dispute
A small-town legal battle in Anacortes reveals how railroad companies and local governments clashed over the definition of 'rock' to dodge municipal assessments.
- A Senator’s Gift of Stone
Senator Watson C. Squire offers the city free rock from his Duwamish River quarries to help jumpstart local street paving efforts.
- Turning the Chain-Gang Toward Thrift
A city commissioner rejects expensive wood bids for the pumping station, proposing to employ the chain-gang instead.
- Blasting Beneath 14th and A
Contractor C.D. Elmore is drilling into cement gravel to carve out a new foundation for a downtown landmark.
- A Strike Argument at a Shingle Mill Ends with a Knife in a Man's Abdomen
Two mill hands fall to blows over the strike question; the ex-preacher parries a club and stabs the man his neighbors call crazy on the industrial question.
- Seattle's First Real Street Paving
A specimen half-block is laid on Commercial Street as a test to end the era of plank roads and mud.
- The Midnight Vandal at the Standard Office
An editorial office in Olympia faces a late-night visit from an assailant armed with an effigy and firearms.
- A Miraculous Fall from a Construction Site
A corniceman plunges three stories from a building under construction, surviving with only cuts and bruises.