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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 33 |
| 1877 | 16 |
| 1878 | 14 |
| 1880 | 7 |
| 1882 | 6 |
| 1883 | 25 |
| 1884 | 6 |
| 1885 | 22 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 8 |
| 1888 | 19 |
| 1889 | 40 |
| 1890 | 7 |
| 1891 | 34 |
| 1892 | 41 |
| 1893 | 39 |
| 1894 | 37 |
| 1895 | 61 |
| 1897 | 5 |
| 1898 | 13 |
| 1899 | 15 |
| 1903 | 22 |
| 1904 | 19 |
| 1905 | 4 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 19 |
| 1909 | 30 |
| 1910 | 5 |
| 1911 | 3 |
| 1914 | 9 |
| 1915 | 12 |
| 1916 | 12 |
| 1917 | 6 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1923 | 8 |
| 1924 | 6 |
| 1925 | 4 |
626 stories matching summer
- The Lightning Rod Swindler Who Targeted the Courthouse
A traveling salesman tries to sell protection to a jury foreman, only to discover he’s been pitching his wares to the wrong building.
- Seattle’s First Battle for a Long Weekend
In 1889, Seattle’s hardware merchants pioneered a movement to close shops early on summer evenings to give workers time for leisure and self-improvement.
- The Moss-Cloaked Giants of Bay Center
A teacher’s letter from the Pacific Northwest frontier describes a landscape of colossal trees and lush undergrowth, challenging the myth of the harsh pioneer struggle.
- The Dust That Cost a Dollar: Kennewick’s Summer of Dry Streets
With city coffers empty and saloon licenses expired, the Commercial Club faces a parching summer. Will business owners pay for water, or let the dust settle?
- Fidelity Lumber Says the Mill Will Rise This Summer
A 25-million-foot sawmill across the Pend Oreille, a Great Northern spur, and a cable ferry: Newport's timber future looked certain in 1908.
- The Regents Build a University: Bids, Boilers, and a Summer School for Teachers
Meeting at the old university building, the Board of Regents orders construction bids for a powerhouse and sanitary works, greenlights a summer institute for public-school teachers, and dances around the question everyone is asking — who will run the university?
- Washington Slams the Gate on Oregon Sheep
A new state law quarantines out-of-state flocks at the border, and the Oregon herders who have grazed Mount Adams every summer are suddenly out of luck — with 50,000 sheep and nowhere to put them.
- The City That Forgot to Flush: Seattle’s Shameful Sewer Crisis
As the population surges toward 40,000, an editorial warns that neglecting public health infrastructure is a 'crime' waiting for a deadly summer.
- The Fight Against Tacoma's Rubbish
Health officials and the Pure Food Council declare war on 'old shacks' and vacant-lot dumping ahead of a summer influx of tourists.
- The Stock Rustler, the Murder, and the Vigilante Threat in Colfax
Ed Hill's preliminary hearing for killing Langford Summers turns on liquor and provocation—while a bitter town whispers that a light verdict will bring vigilante justice.
- The Mystery of the Ice-Forming Caves
A scientific inquiry into why midsummer ice forms in the lava tunnels of the Washington wilderness.
- The Salmon Wars of 1891: Puget Sound’s Battle for Fishing Sovereignty
While the Columbia River dictated state fishing laws, Washington’s northern waters faced an existential threat, prompting a legislative clash over spawning cycles and local control.
- When Seattle Tried to Farm Its Way Out of Hard Times
An 1895 committee offered plots, tools and seed to out-of-work families near Lake Union, insisting the plan was a hand up rather than charity.
- The Rush for Hood Canal Waterfront
State engineers are mapping tide lands during a historic low tide to prepare for a surge in summer home sales.
- Fleeing the Blizzard: Farmers Look to Puget Sound
Colonies of farmers from North Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan—some worth up to $50,000—are selling out and heading west to Whatcom, Skagit and Whidbey Island, drawn by railroad inducements and a milder climate.
- The Summer Seattle’s New Neighborhoods Ran Dry
Nine residents sign a public letter blaming the city water department for weeks of rationed service—and say the expensive new City Park tank only made things worse.
- The Great Wheat Debate: Can Eastern Washington Change Its Ways?
A professor and a local farmer clash over the future of the region's soil, debating whether to abandon the 'summer-fallow' method for a more sustainable crop rotation.
- Wenatchee, 1898: A Valley Sold on Irrigation and Fruit
A booster's tour of the Wenatchee Valley recounts the first settlers, the whisky traders who fled the law, and the orchards and ditches that promised to turn sagebrush into wealth.
- The Citizen Soldiers Rewrite the Rules of the Guard
Officers of the First Regiment, National Guard of Washington, pick apart a proposed military code — deciding who can drum a man out of a company, setting the adjutant general's salary, and asking why the troops who put down last summer's riots are still waiting to be paid.
- The Eight-Hour Push: Seattle Hardware Stores Lead the Way
Local hardware merchants agree to close at 6 p.m. to grant employees the 'benefit of the long summer evenings' for rest and recreation.
- The Rush to the Beach: Seattle Promoters Look West
Speculators are looking beyond Seattle, aiming to build a new summer resort near Gray's Harbor as railroad expansion promises to connect the coast.
- The Room That Built a City: Seattle’s Desperate Hunt for Business Space
As the population swells and applications for commercial space hit record highs, city leaders warn that without immediate construction, Seattle will lose its economic dominance to rivals who can offer room.
- The Forgotten 'Thousand Isles' of the San Juans
An 1888 dispatch captures a fleeting moment when the San Juan Islands were poised to become the Pacific Coast’s premiere summer resort, complete with massive lime kilns and romantic orchards.
- The Octopus and the Seal: A Local Captain’s War Against a Washington Monopoly
In 1901, Port Townsend resident James G. Swan published affidavits from experienced hunters to debunk Professor Elliott’s claim that seal pups sink like stones, exposing the Alaska Commercial Company’s stranglehold on federal policy.
- The Price of Challenging the Northern Pacific
After suing a railroad giant for injury, George Conroy was met with a perjury charge, jailed for the summer, and driven to insanity.
Also about this, in other words
- The Price of a Summer Flirtation
A classic story of Victorian social mores, heartbreak, and a young woman's calculated revenge gone wrong.
- The City Surveyor’s Summer Retreat
While Seattle’s real estate market remains frantic, the City Surveyor is taking a quiet break in a tent at Lake Washington.
- The Salt Water Summer of 1878
Before indoor plumbing and private beaches, Seattle's waterfront was the city's shared, chaotic, and joyous summer escape.
- The Summer the Smoke Saved the Harvest
With rainfall a third of normal and crops burning in the fields, Seattle's paper made the case that the season's suffocating pall of forest-fire smoke had been the region's salvation.
- Summer Days on the Sound
A lively report from a 1878 community on the Puget Sound, celebrating mill work, new infrastructure, and the social joys of the frontier era.
- Summer Recess at the Puyallup Industrial School
The government-run school shifts operations as it manages land sales and student housing expansions.
- Summer Storm Floods Walla Walla
A sudden deluge leaves streets submerged, damages wheat harvests, and sends mountain campers fleeing back to the city.
- A Hot Ride to the Coast: A Summer Diary from 1905
A Kennewick minister's account of a grueling journey across the state, from dusty horse-and-buggy travel in the valley to a culture shock in the 'Red Light district' of Seattle.