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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 5 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1892 | 15 |
| 1893 | 7 |
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| 1895 | 4 |
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| 1903 | 2 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1907 | 1 |
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| 1914 | 1 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
71 stories matching swarm
- The Great Rabbit Invasion of 1897
Farmers and settlers in the Palouse region faced a desperate agricultural crisis as a massive swarm of rabbits descended upon their fields.
- The Unwelcome Swarm
As Seattle prepares for a railroad boom in 1880, the Chief of Police struggles to contain a surge in vagrancy and arson.
- Seattle Swarms the USS Monterey
The white monitor anchored in Seattle harbor becomes an overnight sensation as hundreds of curious locals crowd aboard to inspect the warship's machinery.
- The Bee Boom in the Yakima Valley
As small-scale farming replaces large estates, beekeeping emerges as a surprisingly lucrative industry for Central Washington growers.
- The 'Vagrant' Scourge of 1878
A Victorian-era editorial attempts to pathologize poverty and social instability in frontier Seattle by blaming 'tramps' and theft for the city’s growing pains.
- The Day Tacoma Forced Out Its Chinese Neighbors
In a pre-planned act of collective expulsion, hundreds of residents marched through the rain to force the city's Chinese population to flee to Lakeview, marking a dark chapter in Pacific Northwest history.
- Fire Threatens Seattle’s Courthouse
A late-night blaze at Slorah's malt house on Mill Street forced the evacuation of the jail and nearly consumed the county’s official records.
- The Coal Land Bust and the Stranded Laborers
Speculative collapse leaves workers in 'rookeries' as a corporate empire fractures.
- The Schoolyard War Over Scarlet Fever
Seattle's health board tried to close two schools. Principals resisted, police made arrests, and pupils turned a fire hose on the law.
- Blood Shed at the Waterfront
A violent clash between union longshoremen and strikebreakers at a Tacoma flour mill leaves three injured.
- Seattle's Labor Council Moves to Shut the Coast to Filipino Workers
In January 1929 the Seattle Central Labor Council opened a drive to bar Filipinos from the mills, fields and steamships — and a Filipino correspondent made sure the insult was answered in the next morning's paper.
- Puyallup Land Sale Proposal Stirs Tacoma Speculators
As Tacoma developers salivated over tribal lands, a prominent Puyallup leader took his case to Washington D.C. to navigate the complex, often predatory, future of his people's property.
- The Slave Ship That Vanished: An Old Man’s Confession in Seattle
A weathered sailor walks into a Seattle saloon and recounts the night his crew mutinied against a slaver, only to watch the ship sink with 200 souls aboard.
- From the Ashes of the Great Seattle Fire
A desperate plea for resilience and community support in the days following the catastrophic 1889 fire that leveled the city’s business district.
- The Great Reconstruction: Seattle’s Waterfront Rises from the Ashes
Less than a month after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city’s wharves are a hive of frantic, round-the-clock labor to restore the vital commerce of the Pacific.
- 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.
- Longshoremen and Strike-Breakers Clash at Tacoma Flour Mill
Striking workers storm the Sperry flour mill and board a steamer, leaving guards and employees beaten in a violent labor dispute.
- The Swarm Descends on Okanogan
Farmers in Okanogan County are battling a historic infestation of grasshoppers that threatens the region's entire wheat yield.
- The Morning the Land Office Doors Nearly Came Off Their Hinges
Dozens of men stormed the Olympia land office at 9 a.m. to file on a timber township worth a fortune — but the filings were a railroad's opening move in a legal war over the public domain.
- Chief Seattle's Promise, Recalled in a Fishing-Rights Case
Col. B. F. Shaw came to Seattle to testify in a Point Roberts fishing case—and remembered the 1855 Point Elliott treaty, when 6,000 Indigenous people gathered and Chief Seattle offered friendship.
- A Deadly Souvenir of the Battle of Seattle
Twenty-one years after the 1856 Battle of Seattle, a local man struck a hidden relic in a fir tree that could have turned lethal.
- The Dogfish Gold Rush on San Juan Island
Before tourism, local entrepreneurs on San Juan Island sought their fortune in the 'stinking' but profitable trade of extracting oil from thousands of dogfish caught in the sound.
- The Narrow Escape in Whitechapel
After a laborer was robbed and tossed into the frigid tide flats of Seattle's waterfront, an unlikely group of rescuers saved him from a watery grave.
- The Betting Frenzy at Pacific and Tenth
A high-stakes municipal election turns Tacoma’s city center into a chaotic, money-soaked spectacle where candidates bet on themselves and crowds swarm the streets in political delirium.
- The 'Curse' of the Chinese: How Seattle's Elite Tried to Buy Their Way Out of Racism
In May 1882, a local editorial argued that property owners should refuse to rent or sell land to Chinese immigrants, claiming they were bad tenants and a financial drain on the city.
Also about this, in other words
- The Swarm That Stalled the Trains
A plague of army worms in a Washington swamp grew so thick they brought a locomotive to a grinding, slippery halt.
- The Great Grasshopper Panic: Why Washington Farmers Are Bracing for a Locust Apocalypse
Professor Riley predicts an unprecedented crop of grasshoppers across the Northwest and beyond, urging immediate preparation as eggs hatch in offices from Minnesota to Missouri.
- The Invisible Army Under the Microscope
A scientific lecture delivered in Snohomish contemplates the origins of life, the invisible world of bacteria, and the processes of decay.
- The War on Flies
Richland's high school students join the Ladies' Civic Club to systematically combat the local pest population.
- The Unintended Urban Pioneers of Sumas
Two land developers scouting for a new townsite find themselves unexpected fathers to a pair of bear cubs.
- The Hop Louse War in the Yakima Valley
As the Yakima hop industry matures, growers face a new, permanent agricultural battle against the hop vine aphis.
- Tacoma’s War on Rubbish
The Anti-Compulsory Vaccination society leads a citywide cleanup campaign, deputizing police to hunt down vacant-lot litter.
- The Mystery of the Apple-Boring Wasp
An entomologist from Pullman descends on Lynden to investigate a bizarre fruit-eating worm that defies known science.