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1. 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

2. A Christmas on the Ice King: The Climb That Saw Rainier Smoking

   In 1894, Major Ingraham led six men, seven homing pigeons, and a camera onto Mount Rainier’s glaciers. They came back with frostbite, a story of steam and smoke rising from the crater—and one pigeon missing.

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

3. A Ten-Inch Snowstorm Buries Seattle and Stalls the Cars

   The city's streetcars, telegraph wires and outlying districts struggle under a heavy January snowfall as Portland reports three feet and the weather observer warns of more to come.

   Jan 4, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

4. The Engineer’s Ash-Box Ghost: A Tale of New Year’s Eve Peril

   In a column dated October 1870, the Seattle Daily Intelligencer reprints a harrowing tale from an old engineer about surviving a wreck by hiding under his locomotive's ash pan during a blizzard.

   Oct 2, 1876The Daily IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

5. Six Men Climbed a Smoking Rainier in Midwinter

   When Mount Rainier seemed to erupt in 1894, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sent Maj. E. S. Ingraham and five companions up the Carbon River in deep winter to find out what was really happening.

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

6. Twenty Inches of Snow Bring Seattle to a Standstill

   A February 1893 blizzard blocks streetcars, freezes water pipes and threatens a coal famine, forcing schools to close and residents to melt snow for drinking water.

   Feb 2, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

7. The Storm That Snarled the Wires: Seattle's First Snow of 1895

   Three inches of snow fall on the city in a single evening, telegraph lines between Portland and Tacoma go dead, and the streetcar companies send out their plows to keep the tracks clear.

   Jan 3, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

8. The Great Northern Snow Plow: President Hill’s Battle with the Cascades

   While Seattle slept, railroad magnate James J. Hill fought a war against the elements, his train delayed by drifts and snowplows in a dramatic struggle that highlights the fragility of early 20th-century transit.

   Mar 8, 1899The Seattle StarSnoqualmie Pass, Snoqualmie, King County

9. The Mysterious Vanishing Snow of Mount Rainier

   A Wallula newspaper reports a strange, massive slide that left a mile-wide track across the face of the mountain.

   Apr 21, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

10. The Night They Slept in Rainier's Ice Caves

    A Seattle climbing party returns from Mount Rainier after a storm-bound night in the summit ice caves—and Tacoma greets them like a circus.

    Jul 25, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

11. The Snow That Crushed a Schoolhouse Flat

    A February storm buries Mason and Kitsap counties under four and a half feet of snow — flattening Seabeck's finest schoolhouse and a Lilliwaup hotel while its owner was away in Seattle.

    Feb 20, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeabeck, Kitsap CountyDisasters

12. A Gold Rush Above the Snow Line

    A Spokane traveler reports from the new Methow Valley mining camps, where promoters are laying out towns, charging $3.50 a day for trail work, and warning poor men to stay away until the snow melts.

    May 20, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMethowBoom & Bust

13. 1893 Snowstorm Leaves City Short of Coal and Water

    Deep snow blocks the rails and the rivers, leaving Seattle shivering and hungry as coal supplies vanish.

    Feb 3, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLake Union, Seattle, King CountyDisasters

14. Children Buried Alive in Snow Slide

    A faithful dog saves four children after a massive snow slide in Antelope Valley leaves them buried beneath the drifts.

    Mar 2, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

15. A Man Frozen to Death as the Big Bend Storm Strands Trains and Madness Follows

    In Washington's Big Bend country, a blizzard stalls trains, drives a stage driver out of his mind and leaves a young rancher dead in the snow.

    Feb 2, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerCoulee City, Grant CountyDisasters

16. Battling the Cascades: A Railroad Contractor’s Winter Ordeal

    Before high-tech de-icing, railroad crews in the Cascade Mountains spent months shoveling snow by hand just to keep the tracks from vanishing into the mud.

    Jul 31, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerEllensburg, Kittitas CountyWork & Pay

17. The Great Evergreen: Seattle’s First Snow in Sixteen Years

    Residents gather on rooftops and streets to witness a rare winter spectacle, as snow blankets the city for the first time since 1890.

    May 31, 1888The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

18. Hail, Snow, Thunder and a Shock Down the Telephone Wire

    For two and a half hours Seattle gets a storm almost no climate can produce — and a businessman on Second Street gets knocked against the door by lightning on the line.

    Mar 12, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

19. The First Winter Chill Arrives Early

    A heavy, unexpected November snowfall signals the end of autumn in the valley as mountain passes are shuttered for the season.

    Nov 14, 1924White Bluffs SpokesmanWhite Bluffs, Benton County

20. The Great Seattle Freeze-Up

    After twelve straight days of record-breaking snowfall, Seattle residents finally see a reprieve as roofs collapse and city transit grinds to a halt.

    Feb 8, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Disasters

21. The Snowfall That Nearly Wiped Out Spokane Falls

    Heavy winter snows caused the near-collapse of two public buildings in Washington Territory, sparking a debate over the need for stricter building oversight in a growing Seattle.

    Jan 15, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerOpera House, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall · Disasters

22. The Tragic Burial of a Mining Camp

    A massive snow slide crashes through the Vallejo mining camp, claiming multiple lives and leaving a community to dig through the frozen rubble.

    Feb 15, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerAlta, Okanogan CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

23. Winter’s Toll on the Yakima Range

    Deep snow and poor grazing conditions lead to mass livestock casualties as ranchers report dire losses.

    Jan 30, 1890The Yakima HeraldYakima, Yakima CountyDisasters

24. Survival in the Wynoochee Snow

    Four hunters face starvation in the mountain snow, surviving for a month on nothing but elk and eagle meat.

    Mar 16, 1893Aberdeen HeraldWynoochee River, Grays Harbor CountyStrange But True

25. The Great Thaw: Mountain Snows Turn Every River Into a Rampage

    An unusually cool spring held a winter's worth of snow until a few hot days sent it all down at once, flooding the Skagit, Cowlitz and Columbia, drowning farmland and putting Portland under water.

    Jul 5, 1880Puget Sound DispatchKalama, Cowlitz CountyDisasters

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