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 By then the hard-working mules and tiny steam engines had been replaced by electric haul motors called “tugs.”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
