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| 1858 | 1 |
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45 stories matching willow
- A Deadly Winter Afternoon on Seattle's Unfenced Sidewalks
While the city celebrated a rare snowfall with coasting, a teenager's death and multiple injuries on elevated, railing-less sidewalks turned the joy into a tragedy.
- A Kingdom Waiting for Rails
In 1878, Eastern Washington farmers were literally building homes out of willow poles because the cost of shipping lumber across the Cascades was ruinous.
- The Ghost in the Willow at Lake Washington
A lonely homesteader’s terrifying encounter with an 'uncanny wailing' near the shores of Lake Washington ends in a discovery that speaks more to the era’s aggressive patent medicine marketing than the supernatural.
- The Valley That Grew Rich on Hops
A horseback correspondent rides through the Ahtanum Valley and finds scarce irrigation water, a handful of prosperous growers, and Yakima Indian crews doing the picking.
- The Salmon Wars of Grays Harbor: How Indigenous Engineers Built a River-Scale Machine
Long before the white man’s mills choked the harbor, Native communities along the Quinault and Grays Harbor rivers operated sophisticated hydraulic traps that captured thousands of salmon—a feat of engineering described in 1890 as 'thrilling sport' yet vital to survival.
- The Swindled Sheep of Whatcom County
A malicious act of agricultural sabotage left 2,000 sheep dead, exposing the brutal desperation of early range life.
- Seattle Rebuilds: Schwabacher Block, Arlington Hotel Lead Construction Surge
Architects unveil plans for new commercial blocks, a school, and hospital expansions as Seattle enters a building frenzy.
- The Treasurer Who Vanished, Then Wrote Home From Puget Sound
An Iowa county official disappeared in the 1870s. After his death, his family gathered at the Olympia Hotel to settle an estate—and letters revealed a hidden life, a bank failure, and a real-estate boom he hoped would make restitution possible.
- Seattle’s Yesler Donation Claim Goes on the Auction Block
An administrator petitions to carve 86 lots out of Sarah B. Yesler’s donation claim to settle an estate drowning in debt and taxes.
- Tax Delay Threatens Seattle's First Great Paving Program
A new revenue law lets property owners postpone half their taxes until November, and the road fund is so short that the city may stop accepting new street-improvement petitions.
- An Entomologist's Dire Warning for Seattle Orchards
A local resident documents a massive infestation of scale and aphid pests, calling for a city-wide inspection to save Seattle’s fruit trees.
- The Canal That Would Make Seattle an Island
In 1883, surveyors proposed locks and canals linking Lake Union and Lake Washington to tidewater—so coal could move by water and Seattle could 'practically stand on an island.'
- The $80,000 Cranberry Bog Behind the Ilwaco Beach
A state commissioner tours Pacific County's cranberry marsh — 1,600 acres, 7,280 bushels shipped to San Francisco, 200 pickers at fifty cents a bushel, and a company openly hoping to replace its Chinese crew with white labor.
- Gold Fever Empties the Army Posts—and Leaves Steilacoom’s Mail in a Canoe
A steamer from the north brings word of rich surface diggings on the Fraser and Thompson rivers, soldiers deserting lower Puget Sound posts, and Steilacoom cut off from its mail.
- Homesteader Investigates Wailing at Lake Washington's Haunted Spring
An early Seattle settler recounts a terrifying, night-long vigil at a 'haunted' spring that kept his dog trembling and the local Indigenous community at bay.
- Redirecting the River: Reclaiming the Stuck Valley
Pierce County engineers cut a new channel through the Stuck River to drain 2,000 acres of farmland and end the cycle of sand-choked floods.
- The Illegal Dam Blocking the Yakima River
A local resident exposes how a private timber dam is choking off fish runs and violating state law near Easton.
- The Unintended Neighborhood
Survey errors leave houses in the middle of streets and neighbors at odds over property lines.
- The Boomtown Hype of 1888
A real estate advertisement masquerading as news paints a picture of a city on the precipice of industrial greatness, promising that Seattle will soon become the 'Queen City of the Pacific.'
- The Haunted Spring Mystery
A lonely Lake Washington homesteader risks his life to find the source of an uncanny, mournful wailing in the woods, only to discover a bizarre piece of litter at the center of the phenomenon.
- A Near-Fatal Timber Run on the Snohomish River
A monster raft of lumber hits a snag, threatening the lives of a crew of settler-families near Snohomish City.
- A Close Encounter with a Cougar
Two young boys on a hunting trip in the Deschutes River valley survive an unnerving standoff with a massive mountain lion.
- The Night Seattle Fought Over Its Streetlights
A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen turns into a tense negotiation with the Union Electric Company over the terms, safeguards and cost of lighting the city.
- Homesteader Investigates Wailing at Lake Washington Spring
A lonely homesteader chases a supernatural wailing into the woods, only to discover a surprisingly commercial origin for his ghostly disturbances.
- A Homesteader Tracks Wailing to Haunted Spring
A terrified settler stalks a supernatural wailing in the woods near Lake Washington, only to find the culprit is far more mundane.
Also about this, in other words
- The Ghost of the Willow Lane
A decades-long obsession over a lost love and a stolen romance in the quiet corners of old Seattle.
- A Cowboy's Fatal Rage
A domestic dispute in the upper country leads to a brutal killing, as the perpetrator attempts to flee via the Seattle steamers.