Originally published in the BDHS newsletter, Summer 2022
By Barry Kombol
My favorite memory of Bud Simmons happened one morning in late December 1974. Bud was the mine superintendent at Palmer Coking Coal Company’s Rogers No. 3. We were working at the underground coal mine near Ravensdale about a year before it closed. I was working the day shift. The night before, a winter storm left Ravensdale and the Four Corners area without power for several hours. The following morning was freezing with eight inches of snow on the ground when we arrived for work at 6:30 a.m.
The crew gathered in the hoistroom when Roy Darby, the hoist operator, informed Bud Simmons that the power outage caused the power transfer system to fail. It supplied the mine hoist with an electrical current. The hoist was like a giant fishing reel with a 1-inch steel cable that raised and lowered the miners and coal cars into and out of the mine.
Bud and Roy headed outside while miners gathered around a coal stove in the hoistroom and tried keeping ourselves warm. After about an hour Bud managed to repair the hoist’s power system so we prepared to go underground. Tony Basselli walked to the mine’s portal and prepared to ride the man-car to the third level where we were scheduled to work. As the mine’s fire boss, Basselli had to ensure no dangerous methane levels had built up overnight.
Shortly thereafter, Tony returned to the hoistroom where the crew was waiting and reported the fan supplying air circulating throughout the mine wasn’t working. None of us could enter the mine without a fresh air supply provided from the fan.
Bud calmly asked Basselli to join him at the fan-house to inspect the blower and figure out what was wrong. Bud and Tony worked on the fan for another hour and finally got it working. Bud returned to the hoistroom and let us know that as soon as Tony inspected for methane, we could start our shift. Tony was lowered 600-feet underground with his methane-detection apparatus.
As soon as Tony reached the third level, the hoistroom phone rang, and Roy Darby answered. He spoke with Tony for a minute, then handed the phone to Bud. From Bud’s conversation it was clear to us we couldn’t enter the mine—but not due to a methane build-up. Rather, a new problem surfaced—the sump pump on the third level had stopped working, flooding the gangway with nearly 18-inches of water!
Bud uttered not a word of complaint. He simply directed Tony to resurface and assemble a crew to work on the sump pump. I don’t recall which of the eight or so miners in the hoistroom went back down with Bud and Tony. That crew worked for another hour when word came to the hoistroom with a report that the pump was now operating. The flooded gangway would soon be pumped down low enough so we could finally work.
Bud joined the crew as we rode the man-car down. There he patiently assigned each miner a task for the day. I remember thinking that a modern mine simply couldn’t run without an operating hoist; without a fan to supply air for the miners to breathe; or without a pump that kept water from flooding the workspace.
On that frozen morning in 1975, I observed the most professional, most capable, most unflappable, and most persevering man I’ve ever worked for. Bud Simmons dealt patiently and calmly with the most significant set of problems I’d ever seen in my life. In a matter of three or four hours, Bud turned a disaster-in-the-making into a productive pathway so we could do our jobs. That winter morning, I knew I wanted Bud working by my side if ever faced impossible odds.
To me, Bud Simmons was the epitome of the phrase, “The difficult I’ll do right now—the impossible will take a little longer.”
Alva Arthur “Bud” Simmons
1917 – Alva Arthur Simmons was born on January 12 in Butte, Montana.
1936 – Alva, nicknamed “Bud,” grew up in Black Diamond, graduating from Black Diamond High School in June.
1936 – Bud started his mining career working at Pacific Coast Coal Company’s New Black Diamond mine (aka, Indian mine) located on SR-169 where the old King County shops once stood (18825 Renton-Maple Valley Highway).
1939 – Alva A. Simmons marries Mary Ann Pohlot of Enumclaw on January 28, 1939.
1939 – Dan Simmons, their only child was born on November 28, 1939.
1943 – Bud received his 2nd class papers to examine mines
1945 – Bud Simmons began a 36-year career with Palmer Coking Coal Co.
1947 – Bud received his 1st class papers to examine mines.
1953 – Bud Simmons was named foreman of the Landsburg Mine.
1958 – Bud Simmons was named superintendent of all Palmer Coking Coal Co., Inc.’s mines (at that time there were four: Danville, Landsburg, Franklin, and Rogers No. 1).
1972–2002 – Bud and his wife, Mary, owned and operated the Twin Firs Group Home for the developmentally disabled.
1975 – Bud oversaw the successful closure of the Rogers No. 3, Washington state’s last underground coal mine.
1981 – Bud Simmons retired on March 26, 1981, from the same picking table job where he’d started his career 45 years earlier. He received a pension from Palmer Coking Coal for the rest of his life.
Bud was a member of the Auburn Elks, Auburn Eagles, Renton Shriners, and Auburn Masonic lodge. He lived most of his adult life in Auburn.
2006 – Bud died on March 13, 2006, in Auburn, Washington.
Bud was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Ann Simmons on December 8, 1994. At the time of his death, Bud was survived by his son, Daniel Simmons of Auburn; sister, Leona M. Forler of Buckley; and one grandchild.
Bud and Mary Simmons are buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn, Washington.
The story, photos, and biography assembled by Bill Kombol
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