Transporting school children

Originally published in the Pullman Herald, November 19, 1920

Unidentified photograph from Selleck, ca. 1920.

The advantages of the large graded school are being appreciated by the people of King County. During the past year 11 of the smaller districts have discontinued their rural schools and are now transporting their children to larger school centers. The school districts of King County are supporting 80 routes of transportation which daily carry 1,603 grade pupils and 513 high school pupils to large central schools.

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Nolte Park in danger of closing

Originally published in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, March 13, 2002

By Kevin Hanson
The Courier-Herald

A full Deep Lake dock at the popular Nolte State Park near Enumclaw is a sign of warm-weather fun.
 

One of the Plateau’s popular recreation areas, Nolte State Park, could find itself on the chopping block.

The one-time resort—home to grassy lawns, hiking trails, and Deep Lake—is among a long list of parks that could be closed due to the state’s budget crunch.

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Selleck, Cumberland, and Kanaskat

Originally published in A Glimpse of the Charmed Land 1925

All tourists who have a little extra time on their hands, should not fail to make the drive from Enumclaw to Selleck, a mountain sawmill town some sixteen miles to the north along the range of foothills and in the very shadow of magnificent Mount Rainier.

The drive is along a solidly packed, smooth, graveled road, and the ever-changing Alpine scenery makes the entire trip a pleasure trip through a nature garden of unalloyed delight.

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Enrollment to be 16,000

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, August 16, 1920

The Maple Valley grade school was built in 1920.

We have 19,196 census children in the count outside Seattle, an increase of 1,755 over last year; our enrollment will be about 16,000. To keep up with this rapid growth on limited school finances has given our boards of directors a great deal of work in providing sufficient facilities, arranging for transportation, and the selection of additional teaching force.

New buildings have been built during the summer or are under way at Auburn, Maple Valley, Bellevue, Black Diamond, Orillia, Kent, Edgewood, Star Lake, North Bend, Veazie, Honey Creek, and Duvall.

At other places buildings have been enlarged or portables erected to take care of the increase in school population, so we can say the year opens with a qualified teacher in every school room, adequate housing facilities for every child, and with every community anxious and willing to give the fullest support to public education. We are at the threshold of a successful school year.

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Way down in Black Diamond

Originally published in The Seattle Times, December 16, 1973

By Stephen H. Dunphy

It’s dark as a dungeon
And damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double
And the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls
And the sun never shines
It’s dark as a dungeon
Way down in the mine.
                    — Merle Travis

Joe Ozbolt had finished a day’s work in the mine and his face showed it. (Photo: Jerry Gay.)

BLACK DIAMOND — Three, four, then five miner’s lamps came into view as the man-car climbed the 1,300 feet to the surface of the Rogers No. 3 coal mine near here.

There was Tony Basselli, 42 years in the mines. And Joe Ozbolt, black coal dust creeping under his cap like a reverse of the hair he lost years ago. And John Costrich, wrinkled, coal-black hands clutching a battered black lunch bucket. And Bud Simmons, the supervisor, a miner since 1928.

And George. George, with his usual six-feet-at-a-stride pace, was gone, down the hill and toward home before anyone could even say good night.

The day shift at the state’s only remaining operating underground coal mine was ending. The night shift—Grover Smail and Lou McCauley, both with 40-plus years of experience, and Jim Thompson—was ready to go “downstairs” to the eternal twilight of a coal mine.

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Founding families, early settlers still call Krain home

Originally published in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, October 26, 2011

By Brenda Sexton

There was a time when the Plateau was covered with bustling, individual communities.

Most had their own school house, community or dance hall and store. They may have had a church, saloon or specialty shop. Most had a band or baseball team. Some had both.

They were filled with farmers, miners and loggers, most arriving from Europe.

Each community had its own heart and soul.

Those areas still serve as reference points for those who live in the Enumclaw area. Ask many today where they live and chances are they will answer with names like Veazie, Osceola, Wabash, Selleck, Birch, Franklin, Flensted, Cumberland, Boise and Krain.

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Veazie and Cumberland still reeling from 100-mile-per-hour winds

Originally published in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, February 8, 1989

Shivering communities band together to battle fire and ice

Dennis Blake at the Cumberland Grocery Store said his community was without power for about 24 hours and water lines were frozen. “We’re having all kinds of fun up here,” Blake laughed. “We stayed good and warm in the store with a fireplace insert.” The store had just received a large shipment of bread and milk, and Blake wasn’t worried about running out of those staples.

Residents of Cumberland were among the hardest hit by last week’s storm. Fallen trees knocked out power lines and most of the small town was without power and water for more than a day, said assistant fire chief Neil Utterwegner.

Power went out about 6:30 Thursday night and wasn’t restored until midnight Friday, Utterwegner said. With no power, the city’s water tank couldn’t fill and went dry early Friday morning.

Utterwegner said the town, eight miles north of Enumclaw, was more prepared for a storm after learning some things from its experience in 1983.

“I think everything we’ve done reflects back to then.” he said. “We’re kind of getting to where we know what to do.”

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Time moves slowly across the river in Cumberland

Originally published in the Black Diamond Bulletin, Fall 2011

By Ken Jensen

You know you’ve reached Cumberland when you see this sign on the Veazie-Cumberland Road.

Take a drive from Black Diamond, up Lawson Hill and past Lake 12, past Franklin and over the one-lane bridge, past the Green River Gorge Resort and up toward the foothills to the southeast….

At last you arrive at the corner of SE 352nd Street and the Veazie-Cumberland Road. An old rusted Pepsi sign marks the spot that—if it were in better condition—would sure to be coveted by those guys from American Pickers.

Welcome to Cumberland.

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Memories of William Anthony Nolte, Deep Lake, and the Nolte Family

By Regina Marckx Whitehill, 1996

The Deep Lake property was kept in the Nolte family under the care of Minnie Nolte. When she passed away in 1972, it was willed to the State of Washington for a state park.

Bill Nolte was born May 6, 1890, and passed away May 30, 1930. He is buried in the Nolte plot in Calvary Cemetery, Seattle, Washington.

Bill and Mary Nolte were married December 26, 1917. A priest, Father Mlinoir, who had previously been pastor in Black Diamond and had been transferred to Holy Cross (Rosary) Church in Tacoma, performed the ceremony. Minnie Nolte and Anne Hughes were their witnesses.

Mary was living at home then and teaching in Franklin. Because women could not teach if they were married, they had to keep this a secret and could not live together.

Bill had a dance hall extending over the lake and this was his livelihood. When school was out they rented a house about a mile from Deep Lake in Veazie.

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Cumberland: Once the promised land for mine owners, it may still be—but for others

Originally published in the Globe News, August 17, 1975

By Bill Smull

Large group of Cumberland area miners pose for a portrait. Knowledgeable old-timers say the picture must predate World War I, because of whale-oil miners’ lamps, forerunner of the carbide lamps. Eighth person from left in second row reportedly is Louie Cinkovich, now a resident of Enumclaw. No other information was immediately available on the picture.

The railroad created the mines, just as surely as it created the roadbed and the shiny metal rails that carried millions of tons of coal away from the forested Cascade valleys.

The coal companies, in turn, created Cumberland, naming it after the rich Pennsylvania mining area and peopling it with thousands of immigrants who found their “promised land” in the black veins lacing those rounded, ancient hills.

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