"Frontier Justice": Guide to the Court Records of Washington Territory is a name index and abstract of the more than 38,000 district court cases heard in Washington Territory (1853-1889). The database includes court actions arising from innumerable causes and tried as civil, criminal, probate, admiralty, and equity cases. The names in the index often reveal a “who’s who” of Washington Territory, but in a greater sense the abstract sheds light on the affairs, disputes, settlements, crimes, and forms of justice that touched nearly every inhabitant of territorial Washington. This database is the result of a project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and carried out by the Washington State Archives beginning in 1984. The intent of the project was to inventory, index, and abstract the court records of Washington Territory and to ensure their preservation by microfilming and proper storage. The original guide was published in 1987, and although the original database was tragically lost, the entire index and abstract was re-keyed into a new database between 2002 and 2004.

Learn about the documentation of Frontier Justice: Territorial Court Cases in Washington and what information is found in the various record types by selecting the tab that says "About this Collection"here.