News reports and photos from Black Diamond and the towns of Bayne, Cumberland, Danville, Durham, Elkcoal, Franklin, Kangley, Krain, Kummer, Lawson, Navy, Palmer, Ravensdale, and Selleck
Originally published in The Seattle Sunday Times, January 16, 1955
By The Rev. Erle Howell First Methodist Church
Dr. H.L. Botts
BLACK DIAMOND, the little coal-mining community southeast of Seattle, has in Dr. H.L. Botts one of the few remaining medical men in King County who rightly can be termed a “family doctor.”
Dr. Botts has practiced medicine in Black Diamond since 1922. He is the only physician in the town and the residents show their confidence by consulting him not only about their bodily ailments but many other problems as well.
The doctor calls on patients in their homes and follows the many fine traditions of his profession which have endeared the rural physician to the heart of America.
The only pharmacy at Black Diamond is in the physician’s office. When he calls, along with the traditional black bag, he takes cartons of drugs. A licensed pharmacist, he dispenses medicines on the spot, filling his own prescriptions from supplies kept in the car.
Originally published in The Record-Chronical, January 14, 1973
Story by Mary Lehto; photo feature by Larry Abele
Down in the pit. Tony Manowski probes the blackness of the Palmer Coking Coal Co. mining pit near Ravensdale on a typical workday. The company, the last mining operation active in King County, faces closure in two or three years, even though the vast underground resources of the “black diamond” have barely been tapped. Reason: more modern fuel supplies and ever-stricter safety standards. For details of the end of an era, turn the page.
Coal mining in King County—one of the area’s most colorful, if not always most profitable, industries—is nearing an end.
After more than 100 years of production, only 18.6 percent of the county’s estimated “black diamond” wealth has been mined. Yet, more modern methods of obtaining energy, and new safety regulations for the mines themselves, are gradually forcing the industry into oblivion.
“We have about two to three years yet to run,” said Carl (Charlie) Falk, office manager of the Palmer Coking Coal Co. which operates the Landsburg Mine in Black Diamond.
The mine, located near Ravensdale, is the last actively operating coal mine in King County.
Twenty-six years of Falk’s life have been devoted to coal mining and it is with more than a touch of regret that he talks about “the end.”
Originally published in the North Maple Valley Living magazine, January 2023
By JoAnne Matsumura Maple Valley Historical Society
The overall size of a newspaper pre-1900 was quite large. As time evolved, equipment and mailing requirements changed, along with other factors. The newspaper size of today has been standard for a number of decades.
Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 11, 1954
RAVENSDALE, Jan. 10.—A wife’s conviction that the answer to her prayers lies alive in an air-filled crypt 500 feet down in the Landsburg Mine today imbued rescuers with new hope of saving a miner trapped since last Wednesday.
But the day of deliverance—dead or alive—of Harry English, 39, of Black Diamond, was projected until Monday or Tuesday by rescuers confronted now with the added peril of seepage from the surface.
Originally published in the Valley Daily News, January 8, 1996
Residents would ride bicycles or stroll past open spaces to work in nearby high-tech industrial parks
By Bruce Rommel Valley Daily News
Don Botts, who volunteers at the Black Diamond Historical Museum, said it is hard to imagine the little town growing into a planned city. (Valley Daily News photo by Duane Hamamura)
BLACK DIAMOND — Standing amid museum artifacts of a late 19th century coal mining town, Don Botts mulls the future of this community in the early 21st century.
Planners envision this town of 1,900 evolving through the next 30 years into a sort of mini-utopia, with clusters of new homes separated by greenery and rural areas. Residents would walk or bicycle along trails to their jobs at high-tech industrial plants. The city’s population swells to 18,000 or more.
“I find it pretty hard to believe Black Diamond is ever going to get that big—we’ve already grown so much in the last five years,” said Botts, a retired machinist and lifelong resident of the community.
Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, Janaury 8, 1954
By Staff Correspondent
Mr. and Mrs. Harry English
BLACK DIAMOND, Jan. 8. — Lily English, grief-stricken wife of Harry English, who was buried in a mine cave-in Wednesday, still clung to hope today that his life may be saved, though she knows that chance is very slender.
In her home, where two sons, James, 16. and Jerry, 11, sat in silence playing solitaire at a kitchen table, Mrs. English said brokenly:
“This waiting is so terrible, not knowing, just waiting—and hoping and praying. Everyone has been so kind. I know that if prayers will help, because of all of my friends and Harry’s friends who have been praying for him—then he will be saved.”
Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, Janaury 7, 1954
Mine entrance: A grimly silent group clustered about the entrance shaft of the Landsburg mine near Ravensdale today as workers searched near 500-foot level below for Harry English, buried in a cave-in yesterday. Standing, at left, was Harold Lloyd, Jr., brother-in-law of English, while English’s father-in-law, Harold Lloyd, was between two other miners at right. The Lloyds’ had come up for a rest after working 17 hours with rescue crews.
RAVENSDALE, Jan. 7.—Only faint hope that Harry English, 40-year-old miner buried in a coal-mine cave-in, would be found alive was held today by his father-in-law, Harold Lloyd.
English was buried in the 400-foot level in a chute cave-in about 10:30 o’clock yesterday forenoon. The mine, owned by the Palmer Coking Coal Co., is at Landsburg, about a mile from Ravensdale.
Roy Coutts, 25, was dug out about four hours after the accident. He suffered minor injuries.
Originally published in The Seattle Times, January 7, 1953
A Lake Sawyer grocer foiled two young men’s attempt to rob his store near Black Diamond last night. The men fled when the grocer fired his .22-caIiber pistol. The grocer said he believed one robber was wounded in the arm.
Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, January 7, 1916
By C.D. Stratton
The task of raising funds for the relief of the twenty women made widows and thirty-eight children made orphans by the Ravensdale coal mine explosion of November 16 last will be brought to a close by Seattle trade unionists tomorrow night, when a benefit dance will be given in the assembly hall of the Labor Temple under the auspices of the Ravensdale relief committee of the Central Labor Council.
Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 6, 1943
Paced by a wartime boom in the South End, new construction in rural King County totaled $25,428,507 during 1942, according to a report compiled by Archie Phelps, south district commissioner.
Rural King County construction far exceeded the figure of approximately nineteen million dollars in the city of Seattle during the same period.
Black Diamond History 