Old Lester depot has new owner

Originally published in The Seattle Times, August 10, 1983

by Herb Belanger
Times South bureau

In 1964, people were still waiting for the train in Lester. Now Burlington Northern wants to get rid of the old railroad station deep in the Cascade Mountains.

The Lester depot, the 97-year-old railroad station in the Cascade Mountains, has been sold by the Burlington Northern Railroad to a Woodinville developer, Wayne Farrer Jr., for $1.

The sale was made with the stipulation that the building would be removed from the BN property by Feb. 1. What Farrer intends to do with the building was not indicated and he could not be reached yesterday for comment.

The depot has been a subject of major interest among historically minded people who feel that it should be saved as a memorial of a time when the first railroad line was punched across the Cascade Mountains opening the Puget Sound area to direct communication with the East.

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Meetings may settle fate of Neely Mansion, Lester depot

Originally published in The Seattle Times, August 3, 1983

By Herb Belanger
Times suburban bureau

Neely Mansion, located on the Auburn-Black Diamond Road, was built in 1894. The building is in the National Register of Historic Places and was the second structure placed on the county register of landmarks.

The future of two structures intimately connected to the development and early settlement in King County may hinge on two separate meetings to be held this month.

The first will be at the Auburn City Hall Monday at 7:30 p.m. when people interested in the fate of the Neely Mansion, tied to the early settlement of the Green River Valley, will meet to see if something can be done about continuing a restoration project which has been halted for lack of funds.

The second meeting will be that of the county’s Landmarks Commission, Aug. 11 at 11 a.m. in the eighth-floor conference room of the Alaska Building, Seattle, when a decision will be made on whether the railroad depot in the Cascade Mountain town of Lester should be recognized as a county landmark.

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New local facility to be spacious mecca for horse lovers

Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, July 26, 1978

By Bill Ziegner

What’s new in the valley? This $600,000 all-steel building promises to be the latest and one of the really famous attractions in this area. It will house the Cedar Downs Equestrian Center, largest privately-owned facility of its kind in the Northwest. It is scheduled for completion September 1, and the first function will be a show for the benefit of the Greater Maple Valley Community Center, according to Richard Burke, Equestrian Center president. —VOICE photo by Bob Gerbing.

The largest privately-owned equestrian center in the Northwest is nearing completion at Cedar Downs, off Witte Road in Maple Valley.

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Tracy surrounded, again escapes from Sheriff Cudihee

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, July 17, 1902

Since Saturday morning Tracy has been hiding in the woods near Covington with two or three companions—He has been unable to travel owing to the wounds which were inflicted by Deputy Bunce—To prevent blood poisoning wounds were lanced by one of his pals

(Copyrighted, 1902, by C.B. Blethen,)

The Times Special Service
BLACK DIAMOND, Thursday, July 17.—Tracy has again escaped. He has succeeded in eluding the Sheriff of King County and a posse of picked men who advanced on his hiding place three and a half miles from here last night, under the best program that has been formulated at any time during the chase.

The posse arrived at Tracy’s hiding place six or eight hours after he had left. He had taken a rowboat and had gone to the east side of Sawyer Lake, presumably about 2 o’clock this morning, accompanied by his two confederates. Sheriff Cudihee and the posse returned to Black Diamond at 2 o’clock this afternoon.

The chase from this point has been abandoned.

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Fatal accidents take two lives

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, July 5, 1923

Black Diamond was saddened the past week by the accidental deaths of two of the men employed in the mine, Frank Eltz, inside laborer, who met his death on Wednesday, June 27, and Joe Spinks, inside laborer, who followed Eltz over the Divide two days later, Friday, June 29.

Eltz was 37 years of age, born in Austria, March 20, 1886. He came to the United States in 1913, and has been with the Pacific Coast Coal Company since August 1921. He was working in the gangway of the 12th level, north, at 5:30 p.m., when a large piece of rock fell from the roof, killing him instantly.

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County album: Volunteers help sort mass of photos from assessor’s file

Originally published in The Seattle Times, June 29, 1983

By Herb Balanger
Times South bureau

The Lester train depot was 52 years old when this picture was taken in 1940 for the King County tax assessor’s office. It is one of thousands being processed and filed by the Regional State Archives center in Burien. Numbers at the left identify when the picture was taken (June 19, 1940) and the assessor’s file number; numbers at the bottom indicate section, township and page in the assessor’s log book and tax lot number; Depot #9 indicates it is the building number in the group belonging to the railroad.

A group of volunteers from the Association of King County Historical Organizations has been hard at work since March trying to preserve what Mike Saunders, archivist, considers “the most comprehensive countywide local history photo collection in the state.”

The work, being done at the Regional State Archives in the former Sunset Junior High School in Highline, will probably be completed in September. Saunders said.

The job involves going through 70,000 to 90,000 negatives from the county assessor’s files dating from a Works Progress Administration project of 1936–1940, in which all the real property in the county was inventoried. Additional photos were taken through 1973 updating the changes to the buildings.

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2,000 tons a day for 50 years

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, April 25, 1929

Sixty-six years ago next fall “Ed” Henderson sighted an imaginary line across the foothills of the Cascade Mountains which revealed one of the cornerstones of community and industrial progress in the Pacific Northwest. Engaged in surveying, he became the discoverer of an extensive coal field from the various developments of which millions of tons of coal have been poured into the uses of commerce during the last half-century.

The only commercial coal produced in the Pacific States is mined within a radius of seventy miles from this discovery, and therefore it commands an extensive market. Next to lumber it is the most enriching natural wealth of the region, the annual output being normally about 2,500,000 tons.

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