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1. The Great Ensilage Experiment of 1887

   When an experimental farm in King County opened its massive silo, it sparked a neighborhood sensation that smelled like 'the mischief' but promised a revolution in Washington agriculture.

   Dec 18, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerHoughton, Seattle, King CountyStrange But True

2. The Great Stink of 1882

   When Makah schoolgirls in Neah Bay proved to their matron that rotting whale blubber smelled better than imported Limburger cheese.

   May 14, 1882Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerCape Flattery, Neah Bay, Clallam CountyStrange But True

3. The Hasheesh Defense: A Seattle Murder Trial Turns on a Drugged Cocktail

   Harry Fraser was shot dead in a Northern Hotel saloon. The accused insisted the last thing he remembered was dice dancing on the table—and a drink that may have been laced with hasheesh.

   Jun 21, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime · Nightlife

4. The Midnight Carriage in Seattle

   A witness recounts a harrowing night ride through Seattle’s alleyways, carrying a trunk that smelled of 'decaying flesh' and the suspected secret of a doctor’s botched surgery.

   May 11, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

5. Seattle’s Looming Epidemic

   Facing a potential outbreak of cholera, the city council debates the urgent need for drainage and cleaning up the ‘rank smelling’ slums of Seattle in 1885.

   Feb 21, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

6. The Slave Smuggler's Lie: A Seattle Sailor’s Close Call on the Congo

   In a gripping first-person account reprinted in local papers, a young American sailor recounts his terrifying encounter with a slave ship off the coast of Africa, where he nearly fell for a deceitful mate's story to avoid a deadly confrontation.

   Mar 15, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

7. The Hidden Poison in Your Pantry

   An official investigation exposes the widespread use of ammonia and alum in common baking powders, arming local housewives with kitchen-tested methods to unmask the dangerous additives.

   Oct 15, 1891Aberdeen HeraldAberdeen, Grays Harbor CountySnake Oil

8. The Roller-Skating Rink Disaster

   A grocery man's customer describes the catastrophic attempt of his father, a self-proclaimed former skating expert, to navigate the local roller rink.

   Feb 24, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

9. The Chief's Daughter in the Shadow of the City Named for Her Father

   A San Francisco Chronicle correspondent visits Princess Angeline in her Seattle shack and finds the city proudly carving her father's face on a new business block while his daughter lives on charity.

   Apr 9, 1892The Olympia TribuneSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

10. The Great Tacoma Water Flimflam

    A look back at the 1890 council scandal that left the city with a mountain of debt and a useless water system.

    Sep 5, 1904The Tacoma TimesTacoma, Pierce CountyCity Hall

11. The Arsonist Who Burned the Books: A Tacoma Cover-Up?

    An attempt to torch the U.S. Custom House in Port Townsend raises eyebrows as officials fear a whistleblower’s evidence of corruption was destroyed.

    Mar 16, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWater Street, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyCity Hall · True Crime

12. The Final Voyage of the Wildwood

    A steamship captain recounts the harrowing night his vessel burned to the water’s edge while docked at Olympia.

    Jul 22, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerOlympia, Thurston CountyDisasters

13. A Majority of 108 from Seventy Voters

    The territorial election returns smelled of the ballot box: Whatcom County, with barely eighty voters, reported a majority of 108 for Stevens.

    Jul 15, 1859Puget Sound HeraldBellingham, Whatcom CountyCity Hall

14. A Chinese Student's 1929 Speech Named the Racism Washington Tried to Forget

    At the University of Washington's Cosmopolitan Club, Wesley Kai Hwa Kwang catalogued a century of anti-Chinese violence — including the 1885 killings in Squak Valley and the burning of Tacoma's Chinatown — and asked a white audience to account for it.

    Dec 15, 1928Filipino ForumSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

15. The Strange Tale of Henry B. Mayo

    A Seattle death, a suicide note, and a landlord's theory that a man took his own life to save a condemned killer from the gallows.

    Oct 28, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

16. Rockefeller's Land Company Comes to Town—and Everett Smells a Deal

    A packed council chamber hears that John D. Rockefeller now controls the Everett Land Company, that the mills may run full, and that the county seat fight is on.

    Aug 8, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerEverett, Snohomish CountyFollow the Money

17. They Climbed Rainier First—and Slept in a Sulphur-Scented Ice Cave

    In 1870, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached Mount Rainier's summit after a brutal 10½-hour climb, then spent a freezing night beside volcanic steam vents.

    Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

18. He Loved Her Too Much to Marry Her

    Adam Gehm, a Bavarian logger working in Carbonado, shot himself in a Seattle lodging house after confessing to a friend that illness left him unable to provide for the woman he loved. He had tried once before.

    Apr 25, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

19. The Circus Comes to Town: Seattle’s First Big Top Spectacle

    As the Hingling Bros. circus unloads its menagerie and performers in the Northern Pacific yards, locals gather for a parade and show that promises 'everything advertised.'

    Jun 16, 1899The Seattle StarSeattle, King CountyNightlife

20. The Great Political Tickling: How Daniel Bugley Outwitted Seattle’s Beriah Brown

    A fiery editorial in the *Snohomish Sun* exposes a political alliance between two rival editors, accusing them of using religious fervor as a cover for partisan maneuvering.

    Jun 16, 1877The Northern StarSeattle, King CountyScandal

21. The Hidden Anarchist Dens of Old Seattle

    A reporter goes undercover into the city's dimly lit saloons to find the radicals, the red-eyed agitators, and the illicit literature that supposedly threatened the order of the growing town.

    Dec 13, 1887Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer1st Street & 2nd Street, Seattle, King CountyNightlife

22. The Saloonkeeper’s Open Letter to Walla Walla Voters

    An unapologetic endorsement of Mayor Hunt from a local saloon owner who argues that city officials should ignore 'blue laws' in favor of prosperity.

    Jun 8, 1903The Evening StatesmanWalla Walla, Walla Walla CountyCity Hall · Nightlife

23. The Beer-Fueled Plot to Steal a Populist Club

    Seattle's First Ward Populists packed a hall over John Considine's theater to stop Democrats from capturing their club—and the meeting turned into a brawl of speeches, resignations and accusations.

    Aug 20, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

24. The Struggle at the Waterfront

    A drunken man falls into the water near a rail yard, but his rescue proves more of a fight than a favor.

    Mar 21, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyNightlife

25. Found Dead in the Cabin at Downs' Landing

    A well-known Pend Oreille River pioneer dies of carbolic acid, leaving a sleeping lumberjack, a neighbor who discovered the body, and a brother who insisted it was an accident.

    Oct 15, 1908The Newport Miner (Newport, WA) 1899-CurrentNewport, Pend Oreille CountyTrue Crime

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