College of Mines

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, May 1, 1930

The College of Mines Building on the University of Washington campus. See article by Professor Joseph Daniels.

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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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Black Diamond Bank is state institution

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 18, 1914

The State Bank of Black Diamond, circa 1921. The former bank building is located at the intersection of Baker Street and Railroad Avenue.

The State Bank of Black Diamond at Black Diamond, King County, formerly a private bank, has been incorporated as a state bank with a capitalization of $15,000. The officers are Otto K. Stirzek, president; D.D. James, vice-president, and Charles McKinnon, cashier.

The controlling interest of the State Bank of North Bend, capitalized at $10,000, has been purchased by Strizek, who will act also as president of this institution. He resides at 5254 Fourteenth Avenue Northwest, this city.

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Mammoth new coal bunkers

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 17, 1904

Loading capacity of 1,000 tons an hour—to be completed in August

New coal bunkers north of Morans’

The new coal bunkers of the Pacific Coast Company, on the waterfront, at the foot of Dearborn Street and Railroad Avenue, shown in the accompanying photographic views, will have ship-loading capacity of 1,000 tons an hour. The storage capacity of the bunkers is 7,000 tons. But with the company’s splendid equipment it is possible to ship in the coal from its King County mines, elevate the product into the bunkers, and carry it on by its electric conveyors down into the vessels loading, at the astonishing rate of 1,000 tons every sixty minutes.

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Going north

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, April 1, 1930

The Pacific Coast Cement Company’s Dall Island crew just before boarding the S.S. Queen for the island. We’ll endorse any statement to the effect that this is a fine-looking bunch. All went north with the exception of W.H. Green, plant manager, standing at the extreme right. Bon voyage.

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Bandits loot mine store of cash, gems

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, March 27, 1924

Entering the general store of the Pacific Coast Coal Company at Black Diamond some time after 1 o’clock yesterday morning, bandits smashed open the safe and escaped with $1,200 in cash, diamond rings, and broches valued at $500, and a quantity of clothing, shoes, and tobacco, valued at several hundred dollars.

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The Pacific Coast Company

Originally published in The Seattle Sunday Times, February 7, 1904

The shipping business of the Pacific Coast has grown from a position of ten years ago, where it was scarcely recognized in the statistical and commercial reports, to a place today that commands the attention and admiration of the entire business world.

It has been said that “he who controls the trade of the Pacific will control the world,” and a statement nearer to the truth has never been uttered. So far as coast control is concerned, it can be truthfully said, the shipping business, both freight and passenger, from Mexico to Alaska, is today practically controlled by the Pacific Coast Company, the largest corporation operating freight and passenger vessels on the Coast.

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A step back in time: They called it Maple Land

Originally published in North Maple Valley Living, February 2024

By JoAnne Matsumura
Maple Valley Historical Society

The Maple brothers arrived in 1876 and settled along the Duwamish River with trees that were thick, aged, and large. It wasn’t long before it became known as “Maples Place.” E.B. Maple lived west of the racecourse along the river, and Eli Maple was the road superintendent.

By mid-1877, the Seattle daily papers were advertising that Mr. E.B. Maple of Duwamish was offering large acreage tracks that ran along the railroad line. The old resident of King County had to go east for his health.

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Yuletide greetings

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, December 25, 1929

Nearing the season of holly, happiness, and good resolutions, it is again my pleasure and privilege to extend personal greetings to each member of the Pacific Coast family. May the Yuletide bring you much joy and contentment. And may the approaching milestone, Nineteen Thirty, spell naught but health, happiness, and prosperity to you and yours.

In other words, I wish you just an old-fashioned Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

E.C. Ward.

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Surviving the snowbound months took ingenuity at isolated Cedar Falls

Originally published in The Seattle Times, December 17, 1986

By Jim Simon

In 1916, fresh out of school, 19-year-old Grace Brooks became one of the first women to move to Cedar Falls, the small community the Seattle Engineering Department was erecting for those who ran its hydroelectric system in the hills above North Bend.

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