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357 stories matching squar
- The Vigilantes' Ghost: Seattle's Dark Secret in Two Maple Trees
A poem published in the *Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer* reveals the city’s foundational myth: that its current 'peaceable' order was bought with the blood of six men hanged by a secret committee when the law failed to act.
- Tragedy on Pioneer Square: A Young Woman’s Brush with Death
While visitors from Victoria watched the fireworks display on Pioneer Square, a stray firecracker ignited a young woman's clothing, leading to a harrowing struggle for survival.
- The Scandal of Kate Claxton: A Star’s Divorce and the Rumors That Rocked Seattle
In April 1873, celebrated actress Kate Claxton filed for divorce from her husband, a downtown broker, amidst rumors of an affair with a fellow actor. The case highlights the intense public scrutiny faced by women in the theater world during Seattle's early territorial days.
- Close Washington Street to Wagons: Olympia's 1891 Dream for the Public Square
As the new county courthouse nears completion, the superintendent in charge proposes grading the square level with Seventh Street, banishing heavy teams, and laying winding, shrub-lined walks with a pavilion for evening concerts.
- ‘You Are Hanging an Innocent Man’: A Condemned Killer’s Last Words Before 4,000 Witnesses
Ezra Snoderly, one of the Cummins murderers, is hanged in Dayton’s courthouse square — insisting to the very end that he dies for another man’s crime, while the crowd judges him ‘game.’
- The Tax Swindle: How Seattle’s Printer Defrauded His Neighbors
In 1872, the publisher of the *Puget Sound Dispatch* exposed a collusive scheme between local tax collectors and a rival newspaper to overcharge delinquent taxpayers for legal notices, sparking a bitter war of words in the territorial press.
- A Screaming Farce at Pioneer Square
Proponents and opponents of a Seattle bond issue clash in a volatile open-air debate that devolves into name-calling and public disruption.
- The Fight for Safer Streets
Walla Walla's decaying wooden sidewalks are proving hazardous, prompting a push for modern cement alternatives.
- The Grange Hall Radio Dance
A dozen families in White Bluffs successfully tune in old-time music for an evening of square dances and waltzes, marking a technological milestone for the remote valley.
- The Salmon Wars of Grays Harbor: How Indigenous Engineers Built a River-Scale Machine
Long before the white man’s mills choked the harbor, Native communities along the Quinault and Grays Harbor rivers operated sophisticated hydraulic traps that captured thousands of salmon—a feat of engineering described in 1890 as 'thrilling sport' yet vital to survival.
- The Birth of Mount Rainier National Park
Federal officials move to secure the mountain's forests and glaciers for public preservation, setting the stage for a new national treasure.
- The Centennial That Saved Seattle: How 8,000 Souls Turned a Territorial Mist into a City
On July 4, 1876, despite being late to statehood and lacking federal funding, Seattle’s pioneers pulled off a spectacle of flags, steamers, and speeches that proved the town was here to stay.
- The Bonfire of the Vanities on Occidental Square
Months after a jubilant, torch-lit victory party in Seattle, the city’s new power-brokers were left holding the bag as lawlessness and economic despair gripped the town.
- The Business Men's Counter-Rally
Proponents of industry and economic development rally at Occidental Square against the 'moral reformers.'
- The Mayor's War on 'Black Chapel'
Mayor J. T. Ronald vetoes a saloon license in a notorious district, decrying the density of vice in a three-hundred-foot square.
- The Human Spider of Occidental Square
A sailor scaled a 135-foot flagpole in downtown Seattle to keep the city’s Fourth of July celebrations on schedule.
- The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer
A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.
- The War Over the Desert Water
An irrigation landowner at White Bluffs vows a 'fight to a finish' against corporate power companies for reneging on water contracts.
- A Reservation Created at the Mouth of the Hoh
Presidential proclamation sets aside one square mile of land for the Hoh tribe.
- The Day the Seattle Gold Lottery Fell Apart
A grand public spectacle at Occidental Square took a sour turn when organizers confessed they had sold only half the tickets, forcing a desperate, on-the-spot slashing of prize money.
- When Seattle Made Property Owners Pay for Street Grading
An 1878 ordinance reveals the early mechanics of Seattle’s urban development and the 'special assessment' taxes that forced property owners to pay for city street improvements.
- The Anarchist’s Pamphleteer
While the nation held its breath over the Haymarket executions in Chicago, a woman faced down Seattle police to distribute radical literature on Government Square.
- The Street Preacher on Pioneer Square
A Seattle man, parading through the city with a Bible and an American flag, faces a jury trial to determine his sanity while his wife struggles to support their family.
- The Fifteen-Inning Thriller at Madison Street Park
A grueling, marathon baseball game between Seattle and Spokane ends in a walk-off home run that turns the crowd into 'howling maniacs.'
- The Railroad Lobby's Quiet Plan to Buy a Governor and Kill the Commission
A Walla Walla editor warns that railroad interests will avoid an open fight over regulation by nominating a friendly, colorless candidate—then using him to veto the commission bill.
Also about this, in other words
- White Husbands in Indigenous Communities on the Frontier
General O.O. Howard describes the precarious lives of white men who married Indigenous women in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Unlucky Quail Hunt on Squak Mountain
A teenage outing near modern-day Issaquah ends in a harrowing surgical emergency.
- The Fertile Hidden Valley of Squak
A glimpse into the agricultural potential and growing pains of the Issaquah Valley, a remote settlement struggling for steamship connectivity in 1878.
- The Shadow Over Squak Valley
In the autumn of 1885, a series of indictments revealed a brutal campaign of violence against Chinese laborers in the Snoqualmie Valley.
- Draining the Squak Slough
A proposal for drainage work in the valley promises agricultural prosperity and potential water access for Seattle.
- The Rancher and the Land-Grabbers
A San Juan Island homesteader faces trial for fighting off a crew of surveyors intent on jumping his claim.
- The Massacre at Squak Valley
A coroner's jury investigates the brutal 1885 killing of three Chinese hop-pickers, uncovering a mob's systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the valley.
- Tragic Drowning at Squak Slough
A laborer loses his life while attempting to secure a log boom near Derby.