At City Dock just west of here, on November 5, 1916, a group of Everett citizens deputized by Sheriff Donald McRae exchanged gunfire with members of the Industrial Workers of the Worlds (IWW). The "Wobblies" were returning to Everett from Seattle on the steamer Verona after earlier being beaten and chased out of town for exercising a free speech campaign during a shingle weavers' strike. At least five died, as well as two citizen deputies, and the event became known as the Everett Massacre.