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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 9 |
| 1898 | 1 |
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31 stories matching unclear
- A Wooden Pistol Emptied the King County Jail
Thomas Blanck, awaiting appeal for murder, locked the night jailer in a cell and walked out with eight other prisoners—armed with a black wooden fake.
- Seattle’s $400,000 Railway Subsidy Drive Hits the Streets
Boosters for the Seattle and Lake Washington Railway report nearly $400,000 pledged, with liquor dealers and suburban notaries drafted to close the deal.
- The Real Estate Frenzy North of the Border
Speculators are scouring the Canadian countryside near Lynden, betting on a new electric railway to Bellingham.
- The Shadow of Graft on Seattle's Armory
A high-stakes bribery scandal reaches the halls of power as a prominent board member is arrested over city land dealings.
- A Grim Discovery Near Fort Spokane
A fisherman finds the remains of a man who apparently met a gruesome end while using dynamite to catch fish.
- The Mysterious Bomb at the Postoffice
A suspicious package resembling a bomb creates a localized stir at the Seattle post office.
- Fire Sale at the Arlington Hotel
Creditors descend on the Arlington as the hotel's furniture and equipment are auctioned off to settle debts.
- A.A. Denny Challenges Ambiguous Indigenous Voting Law
A territorial legislator objected to unclear rules for Indigenous enfranchisement, warning that local election judges would decide voter eligibility inconsistently.
- The Great Northern Hotel Burned to the Ground in Mount Vernon
A three-story frame hotel near the depot was gone within minutes, and twenty-five lodgers barely escaped with their lives.
- The Hop-Picker’s Trial
A jury acquits a young laborer following a violent camp dispute that exposed the raw realities of life in the hop fields.
- The City Hall Printing Squabble
Seattle's Board of Aldermen stalls on a contract, sparking a debate over government transparency, political favoritism, and the true meaning of 'general circulation.'
- Tragedy in the Ashford Coal Mine
A foreman dies in a heroic but doomed effort to rescue his colleagues trapped by an explosion of fire damp deep beneath the earth.
- Tragedy at a Remote Tie Camp
Two children perished in a flash fire at a logging camp near Snoqualmie.
- Bucoda’s Coal Company Runs to the Courthouse
A Thurston County coal company secures a receiver in Olympia while creditors race to court, including a claim on a note originally given to pay workers’ wages.
- The Great Potato Feeding Experiment
Agricultural researchers in the late 1890s tested whether potatoes, mangels, or sugar beets were the most profitable feed for range-raised lambs.
- Mystery Shooting at the Washington National Bank
A bank accountant is found with a gunshot wound to the chest, but the circumstances behind the incident remain disturbingly unclear.
- The Dentist and the Stolen Mare
A frontier community falls for a charming drifter who performed medical miracles before making off with the local postmaster's horse.
- The Great Northern Is Coming as Fast as Men and Money Can Push It
A contractor's progress report puts track at the Columbia by October—if enough workers can be found.
- 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.
- Seattle Tried to Garden Its Way Out of Unemployment
At a Chamber of Commerce meeting, civic leaders pledged vacant land, tools and seed so jobless families could grow vegetables through the winter, borrowing a relief plan from Detroit.
- The Boom on White River
Railroad expansion and hop farming are bringing sudden, unprecedented prosperity to the valley.
- Walla Walla Weighs Water Rights Against Costly Lawsuits
A legal dispute over riparian rights forces the city to weigh the cost of a new gravity system against the risk of massive damages.
- Uncle Sam Sells a Fort: Fort Townsend Is Set Adrift as Seattle Angles for the Garrison
President Cleveland approves transferring the old military reservation to the Interior Department for sale, clearing the way for a new post at Magnolia Bluff.
- The Drunk Constable and the Burglar Who Wouldn't Run
Charles Williams, recaptured after a Seattle jail break, tells how his sleeping guard nearly let him escape; the body of his accomplice Blanck is buried after a curious autopsy.
- A Vashon Island Farmer Stumbles on 80 Pounds of Smuggled Opium
A boy’s shout over a “funny box” on the beach leads customs inspectors to a sloop and an Italian sailor accused of running opium from British Columbia.