Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1904 | 1 |
27 stories matching wharfag
- Great Northern Secures Wharfage for Trans-Pacific Trade
A new contract at University Street promises to connect Seattle directly to the booming tea trade from the East.
- City Dock Bottleneck Hits Local Merchants
The Northern Pacific Railway's failure to install a short spur track has left Tacoma's new city dock paralyzed for months, forcing local producers to pay extra wharfage fees.
- South Bend Wins Water Frontage Fight
Citizens vote to bond the city to bypass Northern Pacific railroad control of local wharf access.
- The Great Tacoma Potato Fiasco
When a local farmer tried to break into the Tacoma market with a wagonload of produce, he found that the city’s much-vaunted commercial prosperity was, quite literally, not worth a hill of beans—or potatoes.
- The Governor's 1895 Warning: Washington Is Spending Itself Into Debt
A message to the legislature tallies a looming deficit, runaway appropriations and a public-land system under pressure — while urging lawmakers to lease harbor areas cheaply and defend taxpayers.
- Debating the Tide Lands
A committee weighs how the state will hold, lease, and sell shore lands in the new constitutional framework.
- The Northern Pacific Railroad Plans Tacoma's Expansion
Railroad executives visit to strategize the massive redevelopment of Tacoma's waterfront and terminal infrastructure.
- A Visitor’s View of Seattle in 1884
A traveling correspondent offers a candid take on Seattle’s mud, growth potential, and the recent victory for women’s suffrage.
- Solving the 'Ram's Horn' Snarl
A council committee moves to eliminate a crooked railroad right-of-way that has long hindered harbor development on the Seattle waterfront.
- The Tacoma Wharfage War
A passenger steamship line faces a bitter blockade after refusing to inflate prices to protect Northern Pacific rail interests.
- The Great Tide Land Tug-of-War
Delegates at the Washington Constitutional Convention debate whether to reserve the state's waterfronts for the public or sell them to private interests.
- The Unbuilt Dream of the Seattle Ship Canal
In 1892, rail giants and civic leaders pressed Congress for a canal to connect Seattle’s lakes to the Sound, arguing that suffocating railroad tracks were strangling local industry.
- The Seattle Coal Cooperative of 1876
A century and a half ago, Seattle workers formed a mutual benefit mining company to secure their own fuel and profits.
- The Tacoma of the North: Selling the Future of Fairhaven
Boosterism was the engine of Fairhaven’s birth, with developers painting a vision of a transcontinental metropolis on the shores of Bellingham Bay.
- The Canal That Would Give Seattle the Finest Harbor on the Pacific
An 1895 editorial urges Seattleites to back a half-million-dollar subsidy to fill the tide flats and dig a canal linking Puget Sound with Lake Washington.
- Aberdeen Pitched as Future Hub for Tannin Extract
A San Francisco representative scouts the Grays Harbor basin, eyeing the abundance of bark and labor as the keys to a new industrial empire.
- Aberdeen’s Rapid Rise from Forest to Factory
A survey of Aberdeen’s industrial explosion in just five years, highlighting its transformation into a manufacturing and banking powerhouse.
- The Tyranny of the Rails
For years, Seattle merchants have endured the 'thralldom' of the Northern Pacific Railroad; now, local business leaders are looking to the Canadian Pacific to break the monopoly.
- The Dream of a Northern Bosphorus: Seattle in 1872
A period travelogue captures the raw, rugged ambition of a frontier Seattle, where coal, timber, and dreams of a transcontinental railroad promised to transform a small sound-side village into a global commercial power.
- The Tide Line War: Who Owns the Water?
A judge in Tacoma settles a bitter dispute over waterfront property, ruling that private owners can only claim land up to the high-tide mark—leaving the rest for the state and public use.
- Press-Intelligencer Backs Public Ownership of Seattle Wharf
A 1889 editorial argues that city ownership of the Seattle waterfront is the only way to save producers from the 'double-tax' of private warehousing.
- The Shipworm Eating Seattle’s Waterfront
Wharf owners were spending a fortune fighting a saltwater pest. The fix: fill the tide flats, cut freshwater waterways, and make the harbor safe for pilings—and insurance.
- The Struggle to Launch Seattle’s Shipbuilding Future
A century and a half ago, Seattle’s local editors argued that the city’s vast timber resources should have made it a global marine power, but capital and labor were held back by East Coast monopolies.
- Ballard's Tide Flats Belong to the Uplanders, State Board Rules
In a decision touching Shilshole Avenue and the Ballard waterfront, the state land commissioners gave upland owners the preferred right to buy tide lands—and warned cities not to become land speculators.
- The Navy Wants a Freshwater Harbor in Seattle
A federal board backs the Lake Washington canal as a strategic refuge for steel ships—and a way to escape the teredo worms eating Puget Sound's timber wharves.