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128 stories matching strait
- A Wife, an Ox Goad, and a Land Feud: Homer Strait Butchered on a Cowlitz County Road
A lawsuit over a piece of land ended in a roadside ambush near Kalama, with Strait's estranged wife wielding an ox goad while her son-in-law emptied a pistol into him.
- The 1898 Sales Pitch That Called the San Juan Islands a 'Klondike at Home'
A judge's promotional essay promised apples, prunes, sheep, fish, limestone and health in Washington's island county—and complained that the outside world had not yet noticed.
- The Mid-Straits Fare Dodge of 'Kaintuck'
A would-be passenger who slipped aboard at Seattle without a ticket tries to bargain his way across Puget Sound—until the captain marches him to the gangway.
- The Tragic Disappearance of a Smuggling Sloop
Twelve people, including ten Chinese laborers and two young girls, are believed to have perished in the treacherous straits separating Victoria from the American side during a high-stakes human smuggling operation.
- Two Steamers Saluted Off Cape Flattery—Then Vanished Into the Storm
A schooner captain’s account places the missing Keweenaw and Montserrat together off Washington’s coast on a night of monstrous seas, just before both were lost.
- The Coffin Captain: A Father, a Son, and the Wreck of the Lily and Maud
Ship carpenters warned Captain Robert Jack he was building his own coffin. Last Sunday night the frail schooner capsized in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the captain and his 23-year-old son went down with her.
- The Loggers Who Built a Town: How an Indian Settlement Thrived on the Banks of Port Discovery
While Snohomish debated its own agricultural future, a thriving community of Indigenous farmers and loggers was quietly building a prosperous life in Dungeness, complete with schools, hotels, and dairy herds.
- The Tacoma Fishing Fleet's Diplomatic War
Tacoma’s Chamber of Commerce takes on the British Empire to protect local halibut profits in the Hecate Strait.
- A Chinook Wind Melted Seattle's Snow—and Nearly Swamped the Sound
A furious overnight blow downed telegraph wires, sent a 1,600-ton ship back out to sea, and left Seattle wondering what the storm had done in the Straits of Fuca.
- Puget Sound's Fishing Future, Blocked by Ice and Freight
A federal fisheries report praises the region's deep harbors and salmon runs, but explains why deep-sea halibut and cod fishing has failed to pay—and what it will take to change that.
- The Tragic Sinking of the Steamer Clallam
A devastating storm claims the lives of dozens as the Puget Sound Navigation Company’s new steamer founders in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
- The Tragic Sinking of the SS Clallam
A maritime disaster in the Straits claims the lives of dozens, including prominent Tacoma residents, sparking a federal investigation.
- The Sky Turned to Smoke: Forest Fires Choke Puget Sound
Fires across Whatcom, Skagit and the Olympic Mountains destroyed bridges, barns and a shingle mill, derailed a Great Northern train and left Puget Sound under a suffocating haze.
- A Cannery, a Reef, and the Indians’ Right to Fish
A federal injunction stops the Point Roberts packing company from taking sockeye while the cannery argues the reef was never reserved to the Lummi—and that 130 jobs hang in the balance.
- Who Left Four Men Clinging to the Buckeye?
When the steamer Buckeye swamped in Rosario Strait, survivors say Captain Hahn rowed ashore with the crew and never sent help back for the men freezing on the wreck.
- The Fiery Wreck of the J. C. Brittain
A freight steamer loaded with lime catches fire after hitting rocks in a thick Rosario Straits fog.
- The Sinking of the May Parker: A Maritime Fraud Trial
Accusations of insurance fraud and a conspiracy to sink a schooner in the Straits of Fuca lead to a complex trial featuring claims of insanity and corruption.
- Drafting the Law of the Sound
A legislative proposal to appoint a formal Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Puget Sound and Juan de Fuca Straits.
- The Last Stand of the David Haley: Wreckers Burn a Tacoma Landmark for Scrap
Seattle wreckers traveled to Puget Sound to strip the iron and copper from the historic shipwreck of the David Haley, destroying a local landmark in the process.
- The Struggle for Safe Passage on the Sound
A local captain makes the case for mandatory pilotage to prevent costly shipwrecks in the foggy straits.
- Trapped in a Gale on the Salish Sea
A rough winter crossing from Port Townsend to Friday Harbor turns into a life-or-death struggle against the unforgiving winds of the Straits.
- Two Collier Captains Raced Into Seattle for a Hat—and Arrived With Milk Cans
The Spartan and Germania left San Francisco two hours apart, neither captain knowing Seattle had bet on the outcome. A tugboat, a lucky wind, and a five-gallon can of milk decided the wager.
- The Mysterious Abandoned Schooner
A local man discovers a waterlogged schooner adrift in the Straits of Georgia with only a dead dog aboard.
- The Governor's Booster Sermon for Washington Territory
Gov. Newell told a Whatcom crowd that timber, coal, fisheries and harbors made the territory's future inevitable—and that the greatest city would rise at the entrance to the Straits.
- The Corpse in the Drifting Boat
A body found in an open boat in the Strait of Juan de Fuca leads authorities to a sealing schooner and a missing companion. Was it murder, or did both men drown?
Also about this, in other words
- The Empire of the Pacific
Senator Watson C. Squire argues that Puget Sound is a defenseless frontier, vulnerable to the British naval presence at Esquimalt.
- The Burnside Returns from Rough Northern Waters
A US cable ship brings back tales of hard seas and the successful integration of Filipino labor.
- The Battle for Tacoma's Waterfront
City officials fight to stop Northern Pacific Railroad from creating a permanent monopoly on the Narrows coastline.
- The Unprotected Sound
An editorial on the vulnerability of Puget Sound's defenses against foreign intervention.
- Tragedy at Point Defiance
A young fisherman vanishes after a struggle with his sail in the currents off Tacoma.
- The Underground Path to Puget Sound
A look at the porous maritime border between Victoria and Washington Territory, where the business of smuggling Chinese laborers flourished despite federal exclusion laws.
- Fishing Industry Braces for Border Dispute
Tensions rise as the Canadian government claims authority over Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance, threatening the livelihood of local halibut fleets.
- The Struggle for Shore Access at the Waterfront
A squatter on the Northern Pacific tide lands faces a showdown with a steam-powered pile driver.