How to Preserve the End of an Era?

By Steve Williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

At the end of Lakemont Boulevard in south Bellevue sits a red two horse barn, five acres of pasture grasses, and the last coal miner dwelling of the 1920's town of Newcastle. For over 100 years coal was dug out of Cougar Mountain and shipped to San Franscisco, turning Seattle into a major seaport by 1880. Seattle's population then was 3,533; but Newcastle by 1918 had well over 1,000 people living right here at Coal Creek. Note the Company Store, Hotel, and Finnish miner's homes on both sides of Lakemont Boulevard in the photo below. Today the road is in the same place, but it is no longer a dirt track with transport only by horse wagons.  

Photo courtesy of Ruth Swanson Parrott, c. NHS

The last coal miner in the area, Milt Swanson, lived in company house #180 there at the end of Lakemont Boulevard opposite the barn. He worked for the B & R Co. until the end of mining in 1963. For the next 30 years he hosted hikers and school groups in a little museum he established in a renovated chicken shed out behind the house. Milt had maps and tools and stories of work in the tunnels and shafts under everyone's feet. He also founded the Newcastle Historical Society and served as its President for many years. (The new 3rd City of Newcastle made him “Citizen of the Year” in 2008). He and his brother John provided tools and artifacts and stories at 15 events sponsored by the Issaquah Alps Trails Club across the street at the Red Town Trailhead.

The “Return to Newcastle” event happened on the first Sunday in June each year. It was a re-union for the miners and their families, and a chance for the trail club to introduce new residents to the woods and local trails. With help from Harvey Manning and others, those events led directly to saving Coal Creek and Cougar Mountain and turning them into public parks that are wildly popular today. Parking lots are jammed on weekends and sunny afternoons. Trails and fresh air have always been enjoyed by people; but nature and exercise have become really important to all of us in these times of Covid. 

Photo by Bob Cerelli, c. NHS

Photo by Steve Williams, c. EHC

Today that historic house #180 property is owned by an outfit called Isola Homes and they are applying for permits to bulldoze it all flat and wedge 35 private houses in there between the two parks. Local citizens began a movement called “Save Coal Creek” to instead preserve the property as a wildlife crossing, a safer hiker crossing, meadow habitat, and perhaps add some trailhead parking while preserving historic features like the barn. If you enjoyed seeing the coal car in the front yard, the open pasture, and one of the last barns in South Bellevue – the question is “Will Bellevue sacrifice it all for just 35 exclusive and expensive private homes?” A public hearing is anticipated in the spring. Visit www.savecoalcreek.org  for updates and more detailed information.

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Resources:

“The Coals of Newcastle – A Hundred Years of Hidden History” 2020 edition, the Newcastle Historical Society, ( availble on amazon.com )

“Newcastle” files 183-194, Richard McDonald Collection, the Eastside Heritage Center

“Newcastle's Busy Mining Years” - Seattle Times article, L. McDonald, 10/04/1959

“Seattle in the 1880's” - D. Buerge, 1986 Historical Society of Seattle & King County

“14 Shorter Trail Walks in and around Newcastle” - E. Lundahl, 2018

500 Hundred Black Workers Brought to Work at Franklin Mine

In April of 1891 the white workers at Newcastle Mine were on strike. This protest of a recent contract with the mine’s owners was called by the union that most of the workers there belonged to, the Knights of Labor. About 25 miles southeast, in Franklin, the owners of the Newcastle Mine, the Oregon Improvement Company (OIC), had been preparing to keep production going in spite of union attempts to preserve their wages and the eight-hour day by reopening the Franklin Mine. Upon hearing news of the strike the month before the OIC sent Theron B. Corey, new superintendent of the Franklin Mine, to the Midwest to recruit as many Black workers as he could. Washington State chapters of the Knights of Labor’s previous discrimination against Chinese railway workers gave the OIC reason to believe that the Knights of Labor would not accept Black workers into their ranks although the national union had several all Black chapters throughout the country.

Corey was able to recruit 500 Black miners and laborers to come and work in the previously shut down Franklin Mine and they departed the Midwest on a train out of St. Paul, Minnesota. The train arrived in Palmer, and to avoid being spotted by the Knights of Labor, workers marched to Franklin under cover of darkness arriving on May 17, 1891. What they arrived to were new homes the OIC had promised, protected by barbed wire and armed guards. Their arrival did not go unnoticed though. The new Black miners were reported in that morning newspaper in Seattle where they were referred to as “invaders” by the press.

Many of the new hires were unaware they were being used to undermine the union. Although not technically scabs, since Franklin Mine was shut down before the strike, the OIC knew that the Knights of Labor would see it that way. Enough workers to operate the mine already existed in the area but, they were mainly union members and sympathizers. Moving Black miners into Franklin was a part of a larger plan by the company to rid all their mines of union workers.

On the morning of June 28, the OIC ordered that sixty Black miners travel from Franklin to Newcastle to cross union lines and work in the Newcastle Mine. While still on the platform in Franklin waiting for the morning train they were shot at by armed miners from Newcastle. Although none on the platform were injured, a man who met the shooters elsewhere, Ben Gaston was shot and fell downhill 30 feet. His attackers stole the gun he carried and fled. He was taken to the hospital and survived. This attack outraged the Black community of Franklin but intervention by private company guards and the county sheriff kept them from retaliating.

The violence did not end there. Around 7:30 PM that night the hired guards noticed two armed men hiding near Franklin station and made them leave. Two shots rang out as the train arrived and a guard on board returned fire. As he did so, everyone on board who was armed began to shoot in every direction. At the sound of the shots the Black community nearby also took up arms.

One group from Franklin believed the attackers to be hiding in the “flats” by the Green River and they headed there, taking a position facing the white miner’s homes. They opened fire on the houses and residents fled, hiding in the surrounding terrain. Several were injured but again, there were no reported deaths. Elsewhere, OIC manager Park Robinson though, shot two striking miners dead, claiming they had run towards him during the conflict.

The fighting was stopped when the National Guard arrived. The governor ordered that King County mines be disarmed and that the hired guards employed by the OIC be removed. Although the Knights of Labor denied involvement in the hostilities they would be largely blamed for this incident and violence around unions would soon lead to the end of the organization.

Black workers remained in the area after these incidents and continued to work in the coal mines. Forming their own social club which offered comradery and some protection by still sometimes hostile white workers.

The Eastside Heritage Center is working to bring more of the stories of this community to you. If you or anyone you know has information they can share with us about the Black community in eastern King County please email us at info@eastsideheritgecenter.org or simply respond to this email.

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Resources

The Coals of Newcastle - A Hundred Years of Hidden History. 2020 Edition. Published by Newcastle Historical Society. Newcastle, WA.

“Employing Racism: Black Miners, the Knights of Labor, and Company Tactics in the Coal Towns of Washington”. Jourdan Marshall . The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor Project. https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/black_miners.htm

"Oregon Improvement Company completes purchase of Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad Company and Seattle Coal & Transportation Company on November 26, 1880." John Calbick. Historylink.org. 2014. https://historylink.org/File/10920

Franklin: Everything you always wanted to know. Black Daimond History. 2011. https://blackdiamondhistory.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/franklin-everything-you-always-wanted-to-know/

African Americans used as strikebreakers at the Franklin coal mines starting on May 17, 1891. Greg Lange. Historylink.org. 2000. https://historylink.org/File/1941

“Knights of Labor.” History.com Editors. 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/knights-of-labor

"Knights of Labor." Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Knights-of-Labor

Eastside Stories: Local Coal Mining Part 2

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Article by Steve Williams

The Bagley Mine pictured above shows electrification and some of the 163,000 ton of coal produced in 1898. By then the hard-working mules and tiny steam engines had been replaced by electric haul motors called “tugs.” Then in 1905 the largest and most productive mine of all was opened just to the south. It was called the Ford Slope and went down five levels to 1,500 feet. At each level, horizontal gangways tunneled into the coal both east and west. Rock tunnels north and south gave access to a number of other coal seams, but all of the cars were pulled up the Ford Slope, and all of the coal was washed and sorted at the Coal Creek bunkers.

Today, the arched concrete entry to the Ford Slope has a picnic table, coal car and a large photo kiosk next to it at Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. Downstream in Coal Creek Park, just across Lakemont Blvd, there is an impressive airshaft (sealed 20 feet down) and seven more interpretive signs explaining the 100-year history of local coal mining. Today, long portions of the rail grade serve as beautiful and easy walking trails in Coal Creek and May Creek Parks (again with good interpretive signs).

Our Northwest coal miners came from 14 or more European countries. The English, Welsh, Italians and Finns were prominent at Newcastle. There were also some local Indians, as well as black miners from Missouri who settled at Kennydale. Chinese laborers who settled at China Creek built most of the railroad, and Scandinavian loggers built two immense 1,200-foot long trestles over the May Creek valley. Coal trains ran twice a day, and the trip to the Seattle docks took just over an hour (something we commuters stuck in traffic might envy today).

The end of ‘Big’ mining here happened when the Coal Creek bunkers burned down in 1929 – just as demand for coal was shrinking due to a global financial crisis (the Great Depression). The California-based Pacific Coast Coal Company decided to close up shop, and the company-owned town was dismantled. Anything of value was carted off or sold, including miners’ homes, which were offered at $25 apiece. The rail line was abandoned in 1933 and the rails pulled out by 1937. Several local miners then started their own independent operations: Baima & Rubitino, Bianco Coal, Harris, Scalzo & Strain. However, oil was fast replacing coal as the fuel of choice, and after World War II both demand and production fell off quickly. The last local mines closed in 1963, a full century after coal was first discovered on the Eastside.

Coal fueled trains, steamships, factories and businesses. Seattle became a major port city, with the population of King County expanding from just over 300 in 1860 to well over 43,000 by 1890, and just over one million in the 1960’s. The legacy of coal for the Eastside has been a skilled, diverse and ambitious population and a landscape now preserved for housing and recreation. A half-century of history and science has now taught us that burning any carbon fuel (coal, oil, wood or natural gas) makes our planet hotter. If we are to survive globally, the history we make now needs to be one of converting to clean energy as quickly as possible.

Above photograph: A group of Bagley Seam miners are shown here. Photograph courtesy of Oliver Rouse and the Newcastle Historical Society

Eastside Stories: Seattle's First Railroad and the Eastside

Article by Kent Sullivan, Steve Williams, and John Tun

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Newcastle sprung into existence in the years after Federal land surveyors discovered coal just east of Lake Washington in 1862. Seattle, a village of barely 1000 people in 1870, did not generate much demand for coal, but San Francisco, a city 150 times larger, was in great need of it for industrial and residential use, yet its local source (Mt. Diablo) was nearly exhausted. Seattle also greatly desired a “cash crop” to help provide much-needed capital. The timber and lumber businesses, although thriving on the Olympic Peninsula by 1870, were slow to develop in the Seattle area.

Creating a mining operation from scratch, to get coal to the surface, was a substantial challenge—but it was only half the battle, because the coal still had to be transported nearly 20 miles to the nearest ocean-going port, Seattle. The lowlands surrounding Seattle circa 1865 were densely-forested, old-growth wilderness, with absolutely no infrastructure (railroads, roads, settlements, etc.). Small quantities of coal were initially transported by canoe across Lake Washington, switching to small, shallow-draft barges guided south on the lake, to the Black and Duwamish Rivers, to Seattle’s waterfront, but clearly, a viable commercial enterprise could not be sustained with these methods.

Doing something different and more practical required capital—a lot of it—and there was precious little available in the village of Seattle. San Francisco, by comparison, was flush with investment dollars, and its investors were definitely motivated to help the city continue to grow and thrive. Thus, the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company (SC&T) was born in 1870.

The SC&T rapidly got an operation going that would have made Rube Goldberg proud, involving transloading coal 11 times in its journey and the first steam locomotive in the Puget Sound region.

1890's coal mining in the Newcastle Hill and Bellevue area utilized rail systems to move coal.

Amazingly, enough money was made this way that the company shut down for an entire year in mid-1873 to build a more-efficient transportation solution involving three rail segments with three separate locomotives, using a 3’ narrow-gauge system, and two lake segments, using two sets of barges propelled by two steam tugs. This system moved 500 tons of coal per day to the company’s wharf and coal bunker at the foot of Pike St., which was built by the first mayor of Seattle, was the largest structure on the Seattle waterfront in the mid-1870’s, and kept a fleet of 9 clipper ships busy transporting coal to San Francisco.

Even this system was deemed too costly and was replaced by an all-rail route in early 1878. (Please refer to Kurt Armbruster’s excellent book, Pacific Coast: Seattle’s Own Railroad for more information on this operation.) The large numbers of men (and their families) required to operate the complex mine and transportation system propelled Newcastle to become the largest settlement in the area outside of Seattle in the years before 1880.

A dedicated group of members of the Newcastle Historical Society (NHS) has been researching all aspects of the SC&T: the route, equipment, production, people, and more. Last year they uncovered the site of an incline used to lower loaded coal cars to the east shore of Lake Washington. Amazingly, part of the incline site survives today (on private property).

An information-packed presentation on many aspects of the SC&T will be given September 26 at the Bellevue Downtown Library at 7:00 PM, in conjunction with NHS and the Eastside Heritage Society. The public is invited and there is no charge. We hope you’re able to attend and learn more about this fascinating, all-but-forgotten chapter of Newcastle’s early industrial history.

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Our Mission To steward Eastside history by actively collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifacts, and by promoting public involvement in and appreciation of this heritage through educational programming and community outreach.

Our Vision To be the leading organization that enhances community identity through the preservation and stewardship of the Eastside’s history.

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Eastside Stories: Eastside Cities

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Cities. Almost all of us on the Eastside today live in one. We may take our cities for granted, but they have not always existed—people had to create them. States are the foundation of the country, and counties are necessary subdivisions of states. Cities are, well, kind of optional.

When Finn Hill joined Kirkland in 2011, one of the last large bits of urban unincorporated area on the Eastside came under the benevolent arm of city hall. Most Eastsiders now live in one of 14 cities in the urbanized areas and five in the rural areas. The boundaries of cities often seem to make little sense, and they sit on top of a patchwork of school and other special districts.

If we were designing a system of governance from scratch we certainly would not end up with anything like the current map of the Eastside. So, how did we end up with our current array of cities?

Cities are formed when a group of residents petition their county government. Once a boundary for a proposed city is agreed upon, residents within that boundary vote on incorporation. Residents can also vote to annex to an existing city, if that city is willing to absorb them.

In the early days of the Eastside, pioneers had few expectations for government services, so cities were slow to form. It can be perfectly fine to live in unincorporated areas without city government. County government provides basic services, and other services are provided by special utility and fire districts and private associations.

Scene on Front Street in Issaquah circa 1910

The first wave of incorporations happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Issaquah is the oldest city on the Eastside, dating back to 1892 (originally named Gilman). It was a coal mining town that made a successful transition to railroad work. Snoqualmie (1903), Bothell (1909) and North Bend (1909) all had their roots in the early railroad routes and as logging and agricultural commercial centers.

Kirkland, which incorporated in 1905, was slated to become the “Pittsburgh of the West.” By the time Peter Kirk’s big industrial plans fell through, Kirkland had become a good sized settlement, and it made sense to form a city. Redmond, had its roots as a timber and railroad center, and incorporated its growing downtown in 1912. The farming and railroad towns of Carnation and Duvall incorporated in 1912 and 1913, respectively.

In 1910, when the postcard was mailed, Redmond was big enough not only to have its own souvenir cards, but also a local post office to mail them from.

Then city formation on the Eastside ground to a halt for decades. Growth was slow, as mining and timber activity wound down and few new large industries moved to the still-remote area. Some larger settlements, like those around the mines of Newcastle, disbanded. Bellevue was still just a one-street village, and the vast commercial areas of Overlake were farms and forests. Not much need for new cities.

Then in the 1950s, the Eastside sprang to life.

The new bridge across Mercer Island opened the area to large scale homebuilding, and Bellevue began to resemble a real city. In 1953 Bellevue incorporated with just under 6,000 residents. Feeling Bellevue breathing down their necks, the Points Communities formed themselves into four separate cities: Clyde Hill (1953), Hunts Point (1955), Medina (1955), Yarrow Point (1959). And the tiny artists colony of Beaux Arts Village formed itself into a town in 1954.

Eugene Boyd and Phil Reilly celebrate the incorporation of Bellevue in 1953

Then another 35 years of quiet. Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Bothell gradually annexed surrounding neighborhoods, but many pockets of residential area were perfectly happy with the benign neglect that county government offered.

But along came a less benign force: the Growth Management Act of 1989, which required extensive planning and encouraged higher density development. Nothing gets the attention of otherwise complacent citizens like the prospect of changes in land use, and within a few years, the Eastside had four more cities seeking to control their destiny: Woodinville (1993), Newcastle (1994), Kenmore (1998), Sammamish (1999).

In many respects, cities are the ultimate democratic institutions: groups of free citizens banding together to form a local government that will collect taxes from them and provide services they ask for. The chaotic looking map of the Eastside is the result of tens of thousands of individual decisions by Eastsiders about how they want to shape their neighborhoods. Individual cities take on the character of their residents over time and become unique places.

From chaos comes community.

All images from the collection of the Eastside Heritage Center. If you are interested in obtaining images from our collection, which has extensive holdings from Eastside cities, contact us at collections@eastsideheritagecenter.org

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Learn more about the Eastside. Books available from Eastside Heritage Center include:

Lake Washington: The Eastside

Bellevue: the Post World War II Years

Our Town, Redmond

Medina

Hunts Point

Bellevue: Its First 100 Years

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Our Mission To steward Eastside history by actively collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifacts, and by promoting public involvement in and appreciation of this heritage through educational programming and community outreach.

Our Vision To be the leading organization that enhances community identity through the preservation and stewardship of the Eastside’s history.

Eastside Heritage Center is supported by 4 Culture