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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 4 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1909 | 2 |
21 stories matching spurt
- The Curse of Engine 671
Northern Pacific railroad workers avoid a locomotive they believe is possessed by evil spirits.
- A Runaway Horse Crashes Into a Tacoma Shop
A spooked horse hitched to a cutter careened down St. Helens Avenue before smashing through a storefront, meeting a tragic end.
- A Violent Collision in Front of the New Opera House
A frightened team of horses pulling a vegetable wagon caused a severe accident, leaving a valuable Percheron horse seriously wounded.
- Seattle's Baseball Team Defeats Portland
A strong start in the first inning secures a victory for the home team at Madison Street Park.
- The Six-Day Skate-Off
Two local professional skaters prepare for a grueling week-long endurance test on the Glide Rink floor.
- Violence in the Opium Dens of Colfax
A brutal feud between laborers in a remote Eastern Washington opium joint ends in a horrific shooting and a manhunt.
- Fatal Crap Game at the Franklin Coal Mines
After an argument over a 75-cent pot, a dispute between miners at a company saloon ends in a shooting and a stabbing.
- Death at the Neah Bay Cable Crossing
A cable car over the Neah Bay river snapped mid-crossing, killing a prominent attorney as horrified passengers looked on.
- The Price of the 'Boom' in 1885 Seattle
While the city rode a wave of prosperity, locals were already feeling the strain of rapid expansion, speculation, and the 'dull times' that inevitably follow a growth spurt.
- City Leaders Hike the South Tacoma Woods to Scout New Wells
After a soaking walk through the forest, city officials and contractors consider a new strategy for Tacoma’s water future.
- Razor Violence in the Mascotte Saloon
An argument between two men on a Seattle sidewalk ends in a gruesome public stabbing.
- The Wild Foot Race on Commercial Street
Before the city grew, Seattle’s main thoroughfare hosted a high-stakes sprint that drew crowds to the rooftops and left bettors stunned.
- Seattle Loses by Half a Length—and Wins the Lake
In August 1894, Seattle's first amateur regatta drew crowds to the Madison Street shore of Lake Washington for a four-oared thriller against Portland and Burrard Inlet. The home crew lost by less than half a length, but set a course record and gave the young city a new civic stage.
- A Miner's Last Spree: The Newcastle Suicide That Shocked a Coal Town
August Sanders, a veteran Newcastle coal miner, shot himself after a drinking spree and the Coal Creek fire left him broke—an intimate glimpse of life and despair in Washington's coal country.
- A Wife Arrived Too Late: The Theater-Builder's Fatal Fall
H. M. Jones slipped from a board atop the unfinished Seattle Theater at Third and Cherry, leaving six children and a neighbor's quiet tribute.
- 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.
- The Rockets Turned Around: Tacoma's Fourth of July Went Up in a Sheet of Flame
A spark touched off the entire $500 pyrotechnic stock at Wright Park, driving rockets and bombs into a crowd of thousands and leaving women and children burned, trampled and briefly lost in the smoke.
- John Wiley's Whiskers Steal a 25–15 Ballgame
A comedian's two-base hit, a 1,000-person crowd, and a disastrous first inning turned a grudge match between the Jacobites and Philistines into Seattle's strangest sporting spectacle of 1894.
- The Murder in the Bunkhouse North of Auburn
A young Japanese labor contractor was beaten and killed as he slept in a cabin on J.W. Nails's farm; a roommate was jailed while blood trails, a loaded musket and an opium pipe deepened the mystery.
- The Night a Streetcar Powerhouse Fire Left Half of Seattle Dark
A pre-dawn blaze at Fifth and Pine gutted the Consolidated Street Railway plant, destroyed nearly all its cars and dynamos, crippled three lines, and blacked out everything north of Pike Street.
- 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.