On November 12, 1896, Buffalo Soldier Moses Williams (1845-1899) receives the Medal of Honor 15 years after his heroic action in a battle with the Warm Springs Apaches in New Mexico on August 16, 1881...
On December 2, 1896, the "giant Palouse earthworm" as it will come to be called, is first reported. Rennie Wilbur Doane of the Department of Botany and Zoology at the Washington Agricultural College a...
In 1897, Swedish immigrants, Carl M. Hanson and his sons Axel, Charles, and Frank along with Louis Olson and Alexander Turnbull (who was Scottish) found the White River Lumber Company in Enumclaw, Was...
In 1897, the U.S. Life-Saving Service opens Peterson's Point Lifeboat Station on Grays Harbor at what will become Westport. The station provides rescue service for mariners wrecked while passing by or...
On January 18, 1897, the Spokane Stock Exchange opens. It is one of about 200 regional exchanges and initially trades in mining shares issued as penny stocks (shares selling below a dollar). Spokane, ...
On February 22, 1897, one of out-going President Grover Cleveland's last official acts is proclamation of the Olympic Forest Reserve. The reserve places 2,188,800 acres, nearly two thirds of the Olymp...
On March 25, 1897, heavy winds lash at Puget Sound with gusts reaching at least 68 mph on Whidbey Island. Tacoma sees 50 mph winds for five hours. In Seattle, the wind breaks 17 windows in a downtown ...
On March 27, 1897, Jane A. Ruley, the first African American teacher in Kitsap County, is hired.
On April 11, 1897, the USS Oregon docks at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton. She is the first battleship to be docked there.
In 1897, Adams County produces its first bumper crop of wheat. For the first time, raising wheat becomes predominate over cattle ranching in the county. The "Big Crop of '97" inspires a major influx o...
On May 28, 1897, the Methow Trading Company of Winthrop, Okanogan County, is formally incorporated under the laws of the State of Washington. Capitalized by Eastern investors, it is an expansion of a ...
During July 1897, Seattle carpenters and joiners organize the Seattle Carpenters and Joiners Local No. 131. Carpenters earn $1.50 per 10 hour day.
On July 10, 1897, Jacob "Dutch Jake" Goetz (1853-1927) kicks off his annual birthday picnic, fueled by 30 kegs of beer, on the Little Spokane River. The event begins with the revelers gathering at Dut...
On July 17, 1897, at 6 a.m., the steamship Portland arrives in Seattle from Alaska with 68 miners and a cargo of "more than a ton of solid gold" from the banks of the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon ...
On July 18, 1897, one day after the Klondike gold rush begins in earnest when the steamship Portland docks at Seattle carrying 68 miners and two tons of gold lifted from the Klondike River, an adverti...
In November 1897, the Walla Walla Public Library opens to the public. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to establish a circulating library for the public in Walla Walla, the city finally has boo...
On November 1, 1897, E. G. "Ed" Pelton and 14 other progressive-minded individuals gather in a farmhouse in Skagit County, near Edison, to organize a socialist community, which they call the Equality ...
On November 1, 1897, W. H. "Billy" Waples (1875-1962) opens a general store that soon grows into the Lynden Department Store. It is one of northwestern Washington's most successful department stores, ...
On November 16, 1897, Chinook rains causing heavy flooding begin the process of destroying access to the Snohomish County mining town Monte Cristo. The flooding event, known as "The Deluge" or "the Wa...
On November 19, 1897, the City Council appoints Republican Thomas J. Humes (1847-1904) as Mayor of the City of Seattle, after 65 ballots. Humes fills the unexpired term of William D. Wood (1858-1917),...
On November 28, 1897, ex-convict Charles Phillips fatally shoots Seattle Police Officer James L. Wells (1859-1898). Wells is transporting Phillips to jail in a patrol wagon when the prisoner pulls a g...
In 1898, Dr. Samuel Burdette, a Seattleite and a U.S. Army veteran, volunteers to raise an African American regiment for the Spanish American War.
In 1898, John Strom organizes farmers in Skamokawa, Wahkiakum County, into the first cooperative creamery on the West Coast. The Skamokawa Farmers' Creamery Association purchases the privately owned ...
On January 7, 1898, a mob of 20 to 30 men storms the Whitman County Jail in Colfax with the intent of lynching two murder suspects. One suspect is lynched, but the other successfully fakes his death a...