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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 3 |
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22 stories matching spear
- The Monte Cristo Mining Boom Was Real. These Stock Companies Weren’t.
A St. Louis police raid led Seattle mining men to check the plat of the Monte Cristo district — and find none of the companies being sold to investors on it.
- A Bloody Disagreement Over Press Freedom
A local attorney attempts to thrash a newspaper editor with a loaded cane and finds the editor more than a match for him.
- The Battle Over the Waterfront Fireboat
City council debates whether the general public or wealthy industrial interests should pay for the city's new fire protection infrastructure.
- A Waterfront Tug of War
Tacoma’s city council demands a $100,000 fireboat to protect the harbor, sparking a heated debate over whether the Northern Pacific Railway should foot the bill.
- Ten Gales, Three Lost Schooners, and a Widow Who Wasn't
A Seattle seal hunter back from eight months in the North Pacific describes a season that swallowed whole crews — and explains why he'd rather kill seals with a spear than a gun.
- The Ghost of the Cascades
A surveying party deep in the mountains unearths an 'enchanted' sentinel—a booby-trapped cache of Russian gold and goods left behind by a doomed expedition from 1816.
- The Makah Nation’s Fleet Challenges the Seal Hunters
With firearms banned, the Makah sealers of Neah Bay turn to traditional hunting methods, outmaneuvering white commercial competitors.
- A Whale Hunt off Cape Flattery
Captain Gavin of the steamer Thornton reports a vivid, bloody encounter between Indigenous hunters and a whale.
- Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.
- The Great Columbia Fish Rush
When an electric railway culvert at Columbia flooded the flats, local residents turned the disaster into a spontaneous community harvest of salmon and trout.
- The Tragedy of Pillar Rock
An old resident recounts the Indigenous legend of how a powerful magician created a massive rock formation on the Columbia River.
- Revenue Cutter Mohican Captures Schooner Volunteer
A small sealing vessel is intercepted in the Bering Sea and brought to port in Seattle, highlighting the tense enforcement of maritime laws.
- A Murder Case Cleared in Hours: Peter Brickley Sentenced to Life
In a swift Prosser court session, Brickley was tried and sentenced for the June killing of Charles Rasmussen, while other defendants pleaded or were acquitted.
- A Deadly Dispute Over Sealskins
A white sealer and an Indigenous man clash over the ownership of pelts, leading to a fatal shooting on the Ozette Reservation.
- The Emancipation Day Celebration of 1892
Thirty years after the Proclamation, Seattle's Black community gathered at the municipal court to assert their political power, pride, and the promise of a unified nation.
- Mount Baker Wakes: Smoke, a New Rent, and an Earthquake at Dawn
Smoke rises a thousand feet from the Twin Sisters and Mount Baker, a fresh quarter-mile crack opens in the mountain, and a predawn shock rattles Whatcom County residents.
- Government Intervenes in Landmark Labor Rights Case
For the first time, the federal government supports a worker's challenge to the 'fellow servant' rule, a legal doctrine that historically shielded railroads from liability for employee injuries.
- The Newport Hardware Man Who Went Through Johnstown — and Kept the River Mud to Prove It
In his store window, E. E. Reid displays a gilded St. George torn from a clock and a rocking chair pulled from the 1889 Johnstown flood — silt still hardened in the crevices — and jokes that he is still selling hardware because the flood only went through him, not over him.
- The Fight to Reopen the River
As high costs of living plague local farmers, the Courier-Reporter calls on the fisheries commission to restore public fishing rights on the lower Yakima River.
- The Road Less Traveled: Seattle’s Shameful Contrast with Victoria’s Fine Highways
In 1876, the local press lambasted King County’s broken road system, praising British Columbia’s turnpikes as a model for Seattle’s own stagnant development.
- 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.
- The Circular of Rumors That Landed a Minister in Court
A four-hour Seattle libel hearing ends with Rev. M. H. Nichols bound over after he admits his charges against Rev. Dr. T. E. Ford were built on hearsay.