Annexation would boost revenues

Originally published in The Seattle Times, December 4, 1987

By Joe Haberstroh

The way the Black Diamond City Council is going about working with a firm aiming to build a housing development that would boost Black Diamond’s population by one-third has some people here disgusted.

Mayor Howard Botts says the city needs the revenue and taxes the new residents would surely bring to this town of 1,300. But many residents who attended a council meeting last night say Botts and the council are being “bowled over” by Graddon Realty.

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A town of many lakes … in the land of many names

Originally published in the BDHS newsletter, Winter 2019

By Bill Kombol

Black Diamond is a town of many lakes, the biggest being Lake Sawyer, the third largest public lake in King County. It’s also home to lots of lakes with several names.

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Annexation pulled out from Black Diamond

Originally published in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, September 21, 1988

A ripple of shock shot through the Black Diamond council chambers Sept. 15 as Mayor Howard Botts announced that real estate developer Steve Graddon and associates have asked to pull their petition for the Black Diamond Lake annexation from the King County Boundary Review Board hearing scheduled for Sept. 29.

Botts told council members and citizens that Graddon said the majority property owner of the 400-plus-acre portion of land southwest of Black Diamond was no longer interested in pursuing an agreement with the city.

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Is Black Diamond going upscale?

Originally published in The Seattle Times, August 6, 1987

Annexation plan could change the face of former mining town

by Julie Schuster
Times South bureau

Chris Maule and her 18-month-old daughter Katie are framed in a settler’s cabin, built in 1899, that is used as an office for Maule’s business in Black Diamond. Maule says she welcomes development because it will come whether people want it or not. Mike Levy / Seattle Times

BLACK DIAMOND — When a Maple Valley developer proposed building a luxury housing development in Black Diamond, city officials lunged at the opportunity—because opportunity seldom presents itself in this economically troubled community.

Black Diamond, a former mining town of 1,300, has barely grown during a decade characterized by rapid South End growth. The town is enduring diminishing public services, a sizable debt, and civic apathy that often accompanies decline.

Two months ago, Graddon Realty made an offer city officials say they can’t refuse. The company proposed building 160 luxury homes that would sell for $200,000—four times the value of a typical Black Diamond home.

The project could increase the city’s population by 30 percent, with a comparable boost in the city’s small tax base and meager $750,000 annual budget. That means extra bucks for Black Diamond’s failed sewer system and hope that the city may retire its $1.4 million debt.

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Unique land use plan seen for large tract near Black Diamond

Originally published in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, March 26, 1987

A marshy area adjacent to a small lake that lies southwest of Black Diamond may be one of the keys to the city’s future, if land developer Steve Graddon’s dream comes true.

Graddon presented his ambitious plan that involves a low-impact housing development and a nature preserve that would be the focus of “scientists from around the world,” to the Black Diamond city council Thursday, March 19.

At the center or the plan is Black Diamond Lake, or Chubb Lake as the old-timers call it. About 35 acres of the lake’s shore is made up of a forested sphagnum moss bog, one of only five known in the state. The bog is considered to be in pristine condition, thus making it more valuable to researchers.

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Why Newcastle is such a steady producer

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, October 5, 1922

A few of the second-shift men who “whoop it up” at Newcastle. This picture was taken “just before the battle, Mother,” which accounts for the well-fed appearance of the crew, the clean faces and the general air of contentment. We don’t know why they didn’t laugh—the photographer told them his funniest gag, but there was nary a cackle. It is tuff, we’ll admit, to work a second shift. It interferes with one’s evenings so.

Facts about coal industry presented in forceful manner by noted writer

Floyd W. Parsons, a prolific contributor to national magazines and an authority on industrial questions, in an article entitled, “Coal Economies,” appearing in the Saturday Evening Post, issue of September 30, stresses some points and calls attention to certain facts we believe will be read with interest by many employees of this company.

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‘Operation Bootstrap’

Originally published in The Seattle Times, February 24, 1959

Cracker-barrel confab: Three town officials elected when Black Diamond incorporated as a fourth-class city last Tuesday, held a post-election conference in the town grocery store. From left, Mrs. Gertrude Botts, council member; Frank Costi, city treasurer and ex-officio city clerk, and Gomers Evans, Jr., councilman. Two of Mrs. Botts’ six children, David, 3, and Connie, 5, were in the foreground. The incorporation was a major step in efforts to rejuvenate the town, once a coal-mining center.
—Times staff photo by John T. Closs.

By John J. Reddin, Times Staff Reporter

BLACK DIAMOND, Jan. 24 — This once booming coal-mining town, now “just another wide spot in the road,” is being given a taste of “Operation Bootstrap” by a group of spirited residents and merchants.

And, like a sick patient responding to a shot of adrenalin, the sleepy town is feeling the effects of its unexpected awakening.

Black Diamond virtually has stood still since the mid-1920s, when a strike closed several of the larger coal mines. A decrease in the demand for coal also has contributed to the “economic bust.”

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‘Take out the trash or else,’ orders the Black Diamond Mine Council

By Ken Jensen

Friday in Black Diamond means “Trash Day.” Roll out the garbage can—actually, a curbside collection cart—to the street and a big, noisy truck hauls its contents off to a landfill far, far away.

Black Diamond pioneers of 90 years ago didn’t have much trash nor were they particularly concerned with its disposal. Feed it to livestock, bury it in the garden, burn it in the backyard, throw it over a hillside, drop it down the privy, dump it an abandoned mine shaft….

Get rid of it one or another—or not. It just wasn’t that important.

That is until 1924, when Black Diamond experienced an epidemic of measles, scarlet fever, and infantile paralysis. This prompted the town’s owner, the Pacific Coast Coal Company, to require that every household purchase a garbage can.

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Chub Lake

Originally published in the BDHS newsletter, November 1992

Black Diamond Lake is one of the lesser known natural jewels in our community. Located within Black Diamond’s city limits, but hidden among the forest land owned principally by Palmer Coking Coal Co. and YarrowBay, the lake is both unique in its character and beautiful to see. (Photo and caption courtesy Black Diamond NOW.)

By Ann Steiert

One thing that we’re constantly reminded of is how very beautiful the countryside was when the first settlers came to the area. The abundant rivers and lakes were such a far cry from the arid California landscape. One of the places on the map is a small lake called Black Diamond Lake. It is better known as Chub Lake.

We have no records which show who first settled around the lake. The furthest back is that the first family was named Abrams. They lived there for many years. They later sold to a family named Sharlock. The Sharlocks lived there for a while; then Sharlock died.

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