Posted in Buildings, Mining, People, Railroads, Towns, tagged 4 Corners, Auburn, Baldy, Black Diamond, bootlegging, coal mining, Cumberland, Deep Lake, depots, Durham, Enumclaw, fires, fishing, German, Green River, Green River Hot Springs, Howard Hanson Dam, hunting, Japanese, Kanaskat, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, Kangley, Lester, locomotives, lumber mills, Milwaukee Railroad, Northern Pacific Railroad, Palmer, Palmer Coking Coal Co., Palmer cutoff, post office, Ravensdale, Renton, schools, Seattle, Selleck, Tacoma, taverns, Voice of the Valley, World War I on March 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, March 6, 2007
By Barbara Nilson
The original depot at Kanaskat built in 1912 and destroyed by fire in 1943. — From the Museum of History and Industry and loaned by Ruth Eckes.
The old railroad towns of Palmer and Kanaskat once thrived across the Green River from each other, Palmer on the north and Kanaskat on the south; eight miles southeast of Enumclaw. Somewhere along the line the two lost their identities. Apparently, the post office located in Palmer burned and the authorities moved it to Kanaskat but left the name of Palmer. (more…)
Posted in Mining, People, Railroads, Towns, tagged Austrian, Barneston, coal mining, Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad, Covington, Cumberland, Eagle Gorge, Green River Hot Springs, Hobart, Japanese, Kanaskat, Kangley, Kent, Kerriston, King County, Lester, Long Switch, Maple Valley, Milwaukee Railroad, Newcastle, Northern Pacific Railroad, Occidental, Palmer, Ravensdale, saloons, Seattle, Stampede Pass, Tacoma, Taylor on August 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Originally published in The Seattle Sunday Times, August 2, 1908
By “W.T.P.”
Suppose you were a policeman with a beat of 700 square miles.
Suppose this included sixteen coal mining towns, where the rough element predominated, and fights, murders, and all sorts of crimes succeeded each other so rapidly that you hardly had a breathing space between.
Suppose you were the only officer of the law in all this district, and that your hours were from 8 o’clock every morning, including Sunday, to 8 o’clock the next.
Suppose your duties had thrown you into desperate fights, open revolver battles, chases that lasted for days at a time through the seemingly trackless woods, and that a dozen times you had been within an inch of your life.
If you could meet all these conditions you would be the counterpart of Matt Starwich, deputy sheriff for the district of Ravensdale, and you would be an “every-day hero.” There are few people in the county who have more deeds of heroism to their credit than this same Matt Starwich. (more…)
Posted in Buildings, Businesses, People, Railroads, Towns, tagged Green River, Green River Hot Springs, Northern Pacific Railroad, resorts on December 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 4, 1904
The only perfectly appointed Health and Pleasure Resort in the Northwest. Steam heated and electric lighted throughout. Dining room unexcelled anywhere. These famous natural hot waters flow from 17 springs at 132 degrees F., within 100 feet of the Hotel, where the waters can be taken at the springs at all seasons. (more…)
Posted in Buildings, Businesses, Railroads, Towns, tagged Eagle Gorge, Easton, Ellensburg, Green River, Green River Hot Springs, hotels, Howard Hanson Dam, Humphrey, Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, Kanasket, Lester, locomotives, Nagrom, Northern Pacific Railroad, resorts, Stampede Pass, Tacoma, watershed on May 16, 2010| 9 Comments »
This 1908 photo is from Central Washington University’s Brooks Library Digital Collection, http://digital.lib.cwu.edu/.
Originally published in the BDHS newsletter, January 2010
By Ken Jensen
Being a relative newcomer to Black Diamond and a self-proclaimed history buff, I’m constantly peppering Archivist JoAnne Matsumura, President Keith Watson, and others with questions about the area’s history: Where was Mine No. 7? How did trains turn around in Franklin? Where was the town of McKay? Some of my queries can be resolved simply by checking out an old publication; others by checking in with an old-timer. Some take a little more digging.
Matsumura suggested such a challenge. A little-known town—a town a bit outside the usual Black Diamond Historical Society purview—but one of great interest to Matsumura (she collects postcards from the once remarkable hotel) and Vice President Don Malgarini (he spent summers there whiling away his childhood): Green River Hot Springs.
 | Dam creates lakes… on Cedar River: It may be short,… |
 | phil darrow on Diamond Junction: Where yester… |
 | Ashley Nicole on Burnett moves to Carbonad… |
 | Dawn Moore on Japanese Camp at Selleck: An e… |
 | Black Diamond Histor… on Burnett moves to Carbonad… |
Today in Washington State History| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
Now & Then: Seattle Times
Black Diamond History 