Saved miner describes 20 hours in tomb; two dead in Black Diamond coal disaster

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 30, 1924

Trapped worker is reached by life savers in strange disaster at nearby colliery

Hope of reaching Wise’s body given up after comrade describes fate; another hurt

By J. Newton Colver

Figure in Black Diamond mine disaster. These pictures, taken at the scene of the Black Diamond mine slide, show the officials who directed the rescue operations that brought one of three men alive from the depths of the mine, where they had been entombed. Above, from left to right, are: Ray Smith, chief engineer of the Black Diamond mine; Frank Koepfli, King County deputy coroner; D.C. Botting, manager of mines for the Pacific Coast Company; N.D. Moore, vice president of the company; Jack Parker, deputy state mine inspector. Below are Botting (left) and Parker in conference. Photos by Post-Intelligencer staff photographer.

Face to face with impending death for twenty hours, in the depths of the Black Diamond coal mine forty miles from Seattle, Manley Cooney walked forth at supper time last evening, free, unhurt, happy to greet his young wife.

Less fortunate were two comrades, caught in an earth shock and resultant slide, spoken of in mine terminology as a “bump.”

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Buried alive, tells of rescue

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 30, 1924

Mine worker snatched from jaws of death

Manley Cooney calmly walks out of Black Diamond colliery after being imprisoned for twenty hours

Manley Cooney (left), who was rescued alive after being buried for twenty hours in a mine cave-in at Black Diamond. “I walked into the mine, and I’ll walk out,” said Cooney when the rescuers reached him, and he made his way to the surface without assistance. He was photographed a few minutes after he reached the mine portal. D.C. Botting, manager of mines (right), who directed the work of rescue.

How it seems to be face to face with death for twenty hours and be snatched back to safety just in time to escape an avalanche of rock and coal, was described this morning by Manley Cooney, Black Diamond miner, whoso two companions were killed Monday night in a “bump” in the twenty-ninth chute in the eleventh level of the Pacific Coast Coal Company’s mine, 1,600 feet below the surface.

The body of O.C. Wise, Cooney’s partner, was recovered at 6 o’clock this morning, about twenty-five feet from where Cooney lay uninjured for twenty hours. The body of Robert Doucett, third miner caught in the avalanche of rock and coal, was recovered yesterday.

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Rescuers hear miners buried at Black Diamond!

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 29, 1924

One victim found dead in workings; Robert D. Doucett loses life, but rescuers have hopes of finding Manley Cooney and O.C. Wise alive

Caught by a cave-in last night, 1,500 feet below the surface, in the eleventh, south level of the Pacific Coast Coal Company mine at Black Diamond, one miner was killed and two others entombed. The body of Robert D. Doucett was rescued this morning. The two other miners, Manley Cooney and O.C. Wise, are believed to be alive.

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A step back in time: Lost nomination by ten pennies

Originally published in North Maple Valley Living, April 2024

By JoAnne Matsumura
Maple Valley Historical Society

There was a time in postal history, long before prepaid, adhesive postage stamps, when the person who received the letter or postcard had to pay the postage. It was called “postage paid on delivery.”

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Miners protest at tent burning

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 22, 1914

Executive board of state organization wires President asking protection for brethren in Colorado

Consider test of employers’ liability; will ask organized labor to help in anticipated legal battle over extent of compensation for accident

Telegrams registering the indignant protest of the 6,000 union coal miners of the state of Washington against the burning of the strikers’ tent colony and the killing of a number of women and children in a battle between coal company guards and strikers near Ludlow, Colo., and demanding “at least the same measure of protection” for life and liberty in Colorado as the government of the United States insists upon in Mexico, were sent to President Wilson and each of the senators and congressmen from this state last evening by the executive board of District No. 10, United Mine Workers of America, with headquarters in Seattle.

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Franklin miner is instantly killed

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 22, 1904

Boulder drops on Cuna Puhakka in coal mine and crushes him

Cuna Puhakka, a Finnish miner, was killed by a falling boulder in the Franklin coal mine Wednesday afternoon. Coroner Hoye was at Black Diamond at the time and went from there to investigate the case.

Puhakka and two other miners had been working in a breast of the mine and the fire boss had set off two shots. The shots tore away a couple of upright posts in the drift and while repairing these, the boulder dropped from the ceiling. Puhakka was crushed and instantly killed and the other two miners narrowly escaped injury.

Coroner Hoye says that the miner died as a result of his own carelessness, as he should have sounded the walls before putting in the new posts.

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Accident unavoidable: Coroner Hoye decides to hold no inquest in Black Diamond railroad wreck

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 21, 1904

Coroner Hoye decided today that the railroad wreck at Black Diamond Tuesday, in which Engineer Joe Scanlon was killed and Fireman George M. Hoagland was injured, was an unavoidable accident, and that an inquest will not be necessary.

Coroner Hoye went to Black Diamond yesterday and personally investigated the accident. He found that the train while going down grade became uncontrollable and as it went around the curve, the engine left the track and pulled five loaded cars over a deep embankment. Scanlon was crushed under the engine. Hoagland was hurt in falling. The latter is at Providence Hospital and is improving as rapidly as can be expected.

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The Carbon River country: It flows with great magic

Originally published in The Tacoma News Tribune and Sunday Ledger, April 19, 1964

By Rod Cardwell

Left: Wilkeson sight, sculptor John Geise. Middle: Wilderness defeats man in Carbon River country. Right: Wilkeson quarry workers get a lift.

“Where the ladies’ rest room is now, they used to have a dentist’s chair,” said Eugene Wright, proprietor of the Carbonado Tavern.

The amiable, soft-spoken Wright, a Carbonado citizen for 49 years, was reflecting on the coal-mining boom days of another era … a hectic, happy, good-money time when the ache of a tooth and a thirst for a tall, cool one were treated under the same roof.

The magic of Pierce County’s Carbon River country is a spellbinding blend of faded greatness, of wild, mountain beauty … of mementoes Franklin D. Roosevelt … of tough, robust people who would live in no other spot on earth.

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Coal train is wrecked

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 20, 1904

Death and destruction after mad dash; an engineer killed

C&PS extra runs away and leaves track near Black Diamond

As a result of a wreck on the Bruce branch of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad above Black Diamond yesterday, Engineer Joe Scanlon was instantly killed, and Fireman George Hoagland was seriously injured. The train consisted of nine cars loaded with coal besides the engine.

The cause of the accident was slippery tracks and the failure of the air brakes to work at a critical period. The train broke away on a dangerous grade and ran at a tremendous speed until it struck the curve terminating at Black Diamond, leaving the rails and totally ruining six of the cars besides resulting in the fatality mentioned.

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Engineer killed and fireman injured

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 19, 1904

C&PS locomotive plunges down a steep embankment

Click to view the railroad lines in Black Diamond and Franklin, including the Bruce Branch, 1906.

Joseph Scanlon, an engineer, was killed and George M. Hoagland, a fireman, was badly injured in a wreck on the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad near Black Diamond at 5:45 o’clock this morning.

While going around a curve nearly halfway between the town of Black Diamond and No. 12 coal mine, the engine of an extra coal train jumped the track and plunged down a thirty-five-foot embankment. The locomotive carried with it five loaded coal cars.

Engineer Scanlon was knocked against the side of the engine and his brains were crushed out. Death was instantaneous. His body was pulled from the wreckage a short time later.

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