Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, December 26, 2006
By Barbara Nilson
Going down into the Spiketon Mine, circa 1916; A group out on a Sunday outing board a “man car” used to lower miners into an underground coal mine; 1st row: Ed Morris, unknown; 2nd row: Ruth Morris, Lena Morris; 3rd row: Nina Morris; unknown; 4th row: unknown, John Morris, unknown.
The first coal mined in the Pittsburg area of Pierce County occurred in the late 1880s. Geographically, the Pittsburg/Spiketon/Morristown area is located about 2 miles northeast of Wilkeson and about 2½ miles south of Buckley. Access can only be gained from Wilkeson if you have a four-wheel drive.
We were headed out to visit the site several years ago and were dissuaded by a sign stating it was a “wilderness road.”
So we whipped around to Buckley thinking we could find the site of the “old town” from that direction but were stymied when we came to the South Prairie Creek that separates the Buckley plateau from the coalfields.
The area was originally called Pittsburg, no doubt for the bustling steel and coal city in western Pennsylvania.
The name Spiketon came from a man named W.D.C. Spike who had opened up a coal prospect in the area in 1905 under the name of Pacific Coal & Oil Company whose prospect was called the Snell Mine. The Pacific Coal & Oil was a short-lived operation existing from 1905–1907. By 1908, W.D.C. Spike is listed as manager of the Coast Coal Company of Pittsburg where Abe Morris later went to work. (more…)
Black Diamond History 