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1. The Struggle for Wider Wheels on Seattle Streets

   As plank roads replaced muddy paths in 1885 Seattle, a push for heavy-duty wagon tires highlighted the city's growing pains with infrastructure.

   Feb 18, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerFront Street, Seattle, King CountyCity Hall

2. The Campaign for Wide-Tired Wagons

   A push for state legislation to mandate wider wagon tires to preserve Washington's rural roads from destruction.

   Nov 17, 1898Ranche and RangeVinelandBoom & Bust · City Hall

3. The Iron-Spoke Innovation of 1876

   A radical new design in carriage wheels promises a smoother, sturdier ride for Seattle’s muddy, nascent streets.

   Feb 24, 1876Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

4. Ida May Love Went to Sea as 'Dan McArdle'

   A Whatcom newlywed walked out on her husband, her skirts and her name to serve seven weeks aboard the warship Monterey — and the Post-Intelligencer tracked her to a Leavenworth dance hall, where she was still talking about 'us boys.'

   Mar 10, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerLeavenworth, Chelan CountyLGBTQ+ Lives · Nightlife

5. Two Weeks In, Still No Senator: Olympia's Republicans Tire of the Ankeny Fight

   The legislature has been in session a fortnight and Washington still has no United States senator. A colleague's insulting letter blows up, the Wilson and Allen camps fold, and a caucus is called to force the thing to an end.

   Jan 28, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerOlympia Hotel, Olympia, Thurston CountyCity Hall

6. Seattle Voters Topple the 'Tammany' Machine in a Republican Landslide

   A sweeping 1894 municipal election repudiates a corrupt city government, a boss named John Collins, and a looted treasury — with Democrats joining the revolt.

   Mar 7, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall

7. The Overachieving Schoolgirl of 1888

   A reporter interviews a fourteen-year-old girl struggling under the crushing weight of an hyper-academic curriculum.

   Mar 28, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

8. They Climbed Rainier First—and Slept in a Sulphur-Scented Ice Cave

   In 1870, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached Mount Rainier's summit after a brutal 10½-hour climb, then spent a freezing night beside volcanic steam vents.

   Jan 6, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMount Rainier, Pierce CountyStrange But True

9. Pike Street Runs Into a Lake: The Man Hired to Untangle Seattle's Eight-Named Streets

   In 1895 the city handed City Engineer Thomson the worst street-naming mess on the Pacific Coast — five Cedar streets, three Adams, four Elliotts — and one road with eight different names. Then the ladies of Queen Anne Hill went to war over who got to be Highland Avenue.

   Mar 8, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust · City Hall

10. The Art of Getting Helped

    A clever traveler tricks two impatient men into doing the labor he was too tired to finish.

    Jun 26, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyExclusion & Resistance

11. The Child Who Built Everett’s Prosperity

    A haunting, fictionalized account of the daily drudgery faced by child laborers in the early 20th century.

    Jun 9, 1911The Labor JournalEverett, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay

12. Auto Stage Plunges into Gulch

    Seventeen passengers survive a terrifying tumble after a mechanical failure on a stage route.

    Jul 23, 1908The Lynden Tribune (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-CurrentLynden, Whatcom CountyDisasters

13. The Pastor Who Couldn't Find a Sermon

    In a rare moment of self-awareness, a Seattle clergyman confesses to his deacon that the city's news cycle is so dry he can't even find material for Sunday's sermon.

    May 21, 1882Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyStrange But True

14. The '$11,000 Gold' Sack That Held Only Tire Chains

    A suffrage lobbyist carried a bank sack labeled with a fortune through Spokane and Olympia, letting fellow passengers believe she was transporting the campaign fund. It was full of automobile chains.

    Feb 2, 1909The Tacoma TimesOlympia, Thurston CountyCity Hall · Strange But True

15. The Outlaw's Only Friend Comes Home to Seattle

    Tom Blanck's sole confidant returns from Victoria and tells a reporter what the notorious Northwest criminal was really like — a killer who never touched liquor or tobacco, and who swore he'd never be taken alive.

    Mar 29, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime · Local Legends

16. The Valley Sixty Miles From a Railroad

    In 1892, the Big Bottom settlers of Lewis County had no road, no sawmill and no rail line — just hand-hewn homes, packhorses, a tobacco-chewing cat, and a Fourth of July party for 160 neighbors.

    Jul 25, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerMorton, Lewis CountyStrange But True

17. A Sinking Buggy, a Borrowed Team, and a Reservation About to Open

    In 1892 a newspaperman packed his wife and infant into a rickety buggy to cross the soon-to-open Colville Reservation, fording the Kettle River and leaning on Native families along the way.

    Aug 22, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerOsoyoos Lake, Oroville, Okanogan CountyExclusion & Resistance · Strange But True

18. Riding the Rails to Newcastle: A Journey Through Seattle's Future

    In 1883, a Post-Intelligencer correspondent took the new Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad south from Seattle, dreaming of tide flats turned into wharves and a bustling commercial city.

    Jul 25, 1883Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerElliott Bay, Seattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

19. A Tired Opera Troupe Nearly Sinks, Then Saves Itself

    The Pyke Opera Company reached Seattle after three days of hard travel, opened two comic operas under-rehearsed, and turned a rocky first night into a success.

    Mar 31, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle Theater, Seattle, King CountyNightlife

20. The Day Fall City Danced: A July 4th Celebration in the Shadow of War

    While General Howard debated tactics against Native tribes elsewhere in Washington Territory, residents of Fall City gathered in a cedar grove to celebrate the nation's birthday with speeches, picnics, and swings.

    Jul 21, 1877The Northern StarKent, King County

21. A Sudden Death in the Cedar Woods

    A survey team’s routine excursion turns tragic when a member succumbs to a mysterious, sudden illness in the wilderness.

    Sep 1, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

22. The Perils of the Road: Early Motorists Lament Terrible Conditions

    Vacationing families return to Kennewick with horror stories of busted axles, tire troubles, and roads that are 'the worst on earth.'

    Aug 31, 1916The Kennewick Courier-ReporterKennewick, Benton CountyStrange But True

23. 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.

    Apr 6, 1877The Daily IntelligencerBay Center, Pacific CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

24. The Agony of Fashionable Feet

    A traveler reflects on the misery of tight-fitting boots, finding in them a metaphor for the 'tight shoes of the soul' that burden our daily lives.

    May 9, 1872Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King County

25. A Jury Called the Franklin Mine Fire Arson. Thirty-Seven Miners Were Already Dead.

    A coroner's jury found that someone deliberately set the fire that suffocated 37 workers in the Franklin mine. The only survivor described how one opened door and one stopped fan turned the gangway into a death trap.

    Aug 26, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerBlack Diamond, King CountyWork & Pay · Disasters

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