Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, May 12, 1982
In honor of Black Diamond’s coming centennial celebration, the Voice is featuring a series of weekly historical articles about the community. This is the fourth installment. (See the first, second, and third installments.)
By Diane Olson
Coal—the mineral that made Black Diamond the third largest city in the state in the early 1900s. Coal—the significant contributor to the economic growth of Seattle and its establishment as the major port on Puget Sound.
The rich McKay vein was discovered in 1880 by Victor Tull, an engineer for the Black Diamond Mining Company of Nortonville, Calif.
It spread from Franklin to Ravensdale, with Black Diamond in the middle. It contained almost “pure” bituminous coal—very clean coal with a light ash (no clinkers after burning) and very low in sulfur. It was ideal to burn for steam to run ships, trains and generate electricity.
The company opened Mine 14 in 1882 and shipped out its first commercial quality coal in March 1885. Located just north and above Jones Lake, it was designated Mine 14, because it was on section 14 of the township.
By 1895, Black Diamond was the county’s King of Coal, surpassing even the lucrative Newcastle Mines.
Eventually there were several mines in Black Diamond. Many were also located in section 14, but had different names. There was Mine Two, sunk where St. Barbara’s Catholic Church is today. Its residual rests under the current United Presbyterian Church.
The Old Lawson Mine was located across highway 169 (built since then) just east of Jones Lake and Mine 14. The New Lawson Mine, which exploded in 1910, killing 16 miners and entombing five of them forever, was further east beyond Old Lawson. There were a couple of mines out by Lake Twelve, again named for the section in which they were located—twelve.
But the Big Daddy of Black Diamond was Mine 11, located where the Palmer Coking Coal Company currently has its offices. The mine, descending for over a mile, was the best in the world at one time.
Its slope went down at a gradual 20 degree angle to 750 feet, where the first level was mined. Every 500 feet thereafter, another level was mined out, stopping after 13 levels, and 1,400 feet below sea level, fanning out under Lake Sawyer.
Mine 11 was finally closed by the state in 1927 when it became too dangerous to work. It was plagued by “bumps,” sudden squeezes caused by unrelieved pressure in the mining, killing or trapping any person in the way.
Many Black Diamond residents, who were on the top, can still remember the slight earthquake they felt with a “bump” and also the sickening feeling in the pit of their stomach as they listened for the company emergency signal on the mine whistle. If it went off, they waited—some at home, some at the mine entrance.
Mine safety became very important to the community, particularly during the twenties. Every mine of any size had a mine rescue team, remembered Ann Steiert.
First aid and mine rescue meets and contests were held with teams from Black Diamond, Newcastle, Carbonando, and Wilkeson. Teams would don gas masks, and “rescue” miners from false tunnels, complete with emitting smoke. School children were trained in first aid.
The miners, often working on slopes ranging from 20 to 70 degrees in four foot high tunnels, learned quickly to listen for little sounds or rustling in the coal, which would give them warning of impending danger.
They developed a shrewd sensitivity to any change in the air currents. They looked for signals of the insidious gasses—methane (a flame would burn too bright), carbon dioxide (a flame would go out), and carbon monoxide (a canary would die). That could bring to them a quick and subtle death. Mine inspectors were constantly checking the air current at the entrance to the mine’s air course and then again where the miners were working.
The mines in the area were some of the most complicated in the United States to operate, because of the steep slopes, gasses, water and faults, which made it difficult to follow the veins.
It required highly skilled men who knew how to drill, blast and extract coal safely and without waste.
“The miners gloried in camaraderie, their mining skills, facing danger and facing nature,” explained Evan Morris of Palmer Coking Coal. “Historically, coal miners are a very unique breed of skilled laboring man. They knew all sorts of tricks and nuances for success.”
Next week: The 1922 strike.
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