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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
21 stories matching tropic
- The Ghost of a Tropical Colfax
Deep under an Eastern Washington farm, workers unearth the massive, prehistoric remains of a creature from a forgotten era.
- A Night of Music in a Jungle Opera House
Seattle's social elite transformed the opera house into a tropical paradise for a high-society concert event.
- The Unwelcome Guest in the Banana Crate
A Black Diamond baker discovers a live stowaway from the tropics in his pantry.
- The Sudden 'White Squall' Hits Tacoma
A ferocious storm rips through the harbor with wind, rain, and snow, causing ships to drift and confusing local scientists.
- The Bug Inspector Who Called Himself a Crank — and Warned That Japanese Oranges Could Wreck Washington's Orchards
A King County insect inspector accuses the state horticultural commissioner of botching a fumigation order, then warns that the scale insects riding in on imported Japanese oranges could become "a curse to one of Washington's greatest industries."
- The Republican Rally for John McGraw
A boisterous night of cheering and song at the First Regiment Armory as Republicans ratify their gubernatorial ticket.
- From Soap and Apples to a Commercial Powerhouse
The late William Montgomery arrived in Seattle with nothing but a few boxes of soap and ended his life as a prominent tobacco merchant.
- The Lure of the West: A Pioneer’s Review of the New Frontier
An old-timer returns from an Eastern tour to report on the state of the Northern Pacific line and the promise of the Washington Territory.
- The Scotch Sailor Boy’s Harrowing Escape
A teenage apprentice tells the tale of his brutal treatment, false imprisonment, and survival following a shipwreck in Lower California.
- The Peeping Toms of H and Second Streets
A string of late-night window-peeping incidents has left Aberdeen residents on edge and arming themselves for a confrontation.
- The Promised City of the Desert
Promoters in 1889 pitched Pasco as the inevitable 'Gate City' of the Inland Empire, promising a metropolis at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
- The Swing Chorus: How Seattle’s Elite Turned a Concert into a Tropical Fantasy
At Frye’s Opera House in 1903, the Harmony Club staged a bizarre and beautiful musical revue featuring twenty-six young women swinging on hammocks and teeter-totters, proving that Seattle society was ready for something new.
- The Promised Land on Puget Sound
An 1878 booster letter to the Midwest paints a portrait of Washington Territory as a temperate, fertile frontier where anyone willing to work a log house could find independence.
- Hotel Showdown at the Brunswick
A local hop farmer and a married woman are caught in a tense, armed confrontation in a hotel room.
- The Skeleton Bridge: A Warning to Newcomers
A local correspondent details the perilous state of the Pill Chuck bridge in Snohomish County, describing it as a 'monument of goshend ativeness' that forces travelers to crawl on all fours across a single stringer.
- The Great Sunday Exodus: Seattle’s Mass Migration to East Lake
In a display of weather defiance and civic pride, thousands of residents abandoned the city center for the shores of Lake Washington, turning Stern & Miller’s new development into an impromptu amusement park.
- Bypassed by the Railroad, Olympia Grabbed a Shovel
When the Northern Pacific chose Tacoma, Olympia’s citizens turned Thursdays into railroad-building days—then remade their town as a bustling capital of 8,500.
- The Canal That Could Freeze England: A Climate Warning from the Isthmus of Panama
In 1877, Seattle’s press warned that digging a canal through Central America might divert the Gulf Stream, plunging Europe into an ice age—a bizarre but prescient look at early environmental anxiety.
- The Flyer Who Flew: How a Railway Agent’s Wine-Fueled Embezzlement Left Him Hiding in Victoria
J.R. Policy, former agent for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, vanished from Seattle after embezzling $1,300 to fund a life of luxury and a romance with a woman of ill repute.
- Keep Your Money at Home? In Kennewick, the Shoe-Leather Trail Led to Pasco
A letter to the editor takes aim at buy-local boosterism, arguing that Kennewick shoppers already knew the real prices—and often crossed the river to Pasco or sent away for mail-order catalogs.
- Gold Fever at the Doorstep: The Coeur d'Alene Rush
Word of fabulously rich quartz strikes fifty miles east of Spokane Falls has set off a stampede — veterans of '49 are said to be packing up again, and 50,000 men are expected in the mountains next spring, with Spokane Falls positioning itself as the supply depot.