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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Big K. of P. drill is well attended

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 3, 1904

Many local Knights journey to Newcastle to participate in district convention

Knights of Labor seal

The district convention of the Knights of Pythias for the part of the state that embraces Seattle and adjacent cities was held last night at Newcastle and was attended by many local knights. The principal object of the convention was a competitive team drill for third rank work, and the drill was participated in by Seattle Lodge No. 51 and a delegation of many officers and members of other locals. The only uniformed company that attended the drill from this section en masse was Company No. 23 from Black Diamond.

At the conclusion of the rank work a banquet was given to the visiting delegations. The local contingent left this city in the interurban train at 6:30 to Renton, and from there they took the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad to their destination.

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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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And we also have coal: A Post-Intelligencer motorlogue

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 1924

Counting the gifts which Nature showered upon the Puget Sound country, we sometimes omit one of the most precious—coal. From Bellingham, 100 miles north, to Centralia, an equal distance south, black nuggets occur in workable deposits. From under Seattle’s southern doorstep, ten miles from Pioneer Square, coal is taken. It is taken from the picturesque foothill country right up to the Cascade Mountains, and over them. Rushing rivers fill our minds with their promise of “white coal.” But don’t forget that, generally speaking, the grimy old king is still on his throne.

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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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The 1930 Central Council

Originally published in the Pacific Coast Bulletin, January 31, 1930

Perched on the twenty-first floor of the Smith Tower. Standing left to right: H.B. McFadden (retiring), W.R. Young (retiring), M.H. Davis (new), W.A. Wilson, Manager of Mines, G.F. Clancy, Assistant Manager of Mines, Ted Sthay (retiring), Robert Scobie, Jr., Supt. New Black Diamond Mine, Mike Semsick (new). Kneeling, left to right: James Craig (new), E.A. Bailey (retiring), James Sherwood, George Pearce (new), Robert Simpson, Supt. of Carbonado Mine, and A.R. Wesley.

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Death takes Charles H. Burnett, pioneer

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, January 10, 1916

Former coal owner and operator dies after several months’ illness

Charles H. Burnett, 68 years old, and well known as one or Seattle’s earliest coal operators, died suddenly early yesterday afternoon in his apartments at the Savoy Hotel. He had been ill for several months but was not ordered to take to his bed until Tuesday of last week.

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Railroads play big part in city’s history

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Janaury 2, 1949

Civic spirit of Seattle fed on early troubles with lines

First train—This photo from the files of the Seattle Historical Society shows the first train on the Seattle and Walla Walla R.R. (later the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad) making an early trip. The road was built by the enterprise of Seattle citizens and the first locomotive, considered a wonder, was named the A.A. Denny. First passenger cars were old wood flat cars with rough board seats. Baseball “specials” ran to Georgetown.

Seattle’s early history and later growth is so inextricably bound up with the promotion and construction of railroads that it is rather astonishing no one has yet written and published even a passably complete account of Western Washington railroad development.

Seattle was made by railroads as surely as Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City were made great by railroads.

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