Rainier Anthracite Coal Company 1906 - Washington State

Beautifully engraved Certificate from the Rainier Anthracite Coal Company issued in 1906. This historic document was has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a mining scene in the mountains. This item is hand signed by the company's president and secretary and is over 94 years old.



History of Coal Mining in Washington

Coal, coal, was the cry of pioneers of Puget Sound from the earliest advent of white men and the topic of never-ending discussion in pioneer newspapers. Search for it led hardy, venturesome prospectors into the forests and up the mountain streams, and some of the best farming land was discovered by them. The wealth of the forests that surrounded them was a matter of little or no concern to them.

Residents of the Sound Country cannot realize how dependent our pioneers were upon San Francisco as a customer for everything we had to sell. Practically all of our lumber, piles, fish and coal went there, and it was the insistent demand of San Francisco for coal that caused the earnest search for beds of the black diamonds.

From the earliest days of the white man in the country, coal was known to exist in Western Washington. Doctor Tolmie, Hudson's Bay factor at Fort Nisqually, reports having found coal on the Cowlitz River in 1833, and says the Indians often brought specimens from the hills toward Mount Rainier during the early days; but the exact date of its discovery is not known.

Considerable space is devoted elsewhere in account of a trip about the Sound country made by Samuel Hancock in 1849, with coal as the object of his search.

At the time the shipment of coal first began, Seattle was little more than a sawmilling town, with only one little sawmill in operation. It had a population of less than one thousand and King County about five hundred outside of the town.

The citizens of King County had from the first hoped that their town was to take the lead of all others in the territory, and this hope, it seemed, would be realized through the building of the Northern Pacific. However, when that road announced its intention of making Tacoma the terminus, this move would no doubt have put an end to the expansion of King County industries for many years had not the King County fields at the same time begun to attract the attention of outside capitalists who had seen the ships arrive at the wharves of San Francisco loaded down with the best grade of coal yet discovered on the coast.

The casual reader, perusing the history of the industry, is at once struck with the peculiar fact that from the time of the first discovery of coal by Doctor Bigelow in 1853 to the commencement of the real development of the industry, a period of some twenty years elapsed, during which time little was done toward gathering in the wealth which nature had placed under the hills of this county. This, too, at a time when the settlement was greatly in need of some great permanent stabilizing industry. The people knew the coal was there, they also knew that its mining would mean growth and prosperity and wealth; but this coal was back in the hills where it would be necessary to build roads and trams over which to bring it to salt water where ships could be loaded.

Efforts were made to interest San Francisco capital in the enterprise; but these plans, after progressing to the hopeful stage, would fail. Some of the causes of this failure were to be found right at home--certain people always making an unfavorable report upon the projects for which money was desired. Another thing which retarded development was the discovery of the Mount Diablo field in California just at a time when work was really getting under way in King County. Although the Mount Diablo coal was of low grade, the, proximity of the fields to San Francisco gave it a big advantage over the higher grade King County product. Mount Diablo furnished San Francisco 206,255 tons of coal in 1874, while Seattle sold but 9,027 tons on that market. In 1876 the Mount Diablo output was reduced to 108,078 tons and Seattle sold 95,314 tons to San Francisco buyers; this, too, in spite of a strong clique of California capitalists, who, realizing the possibilities tied up in the King County coal field, were determined to prevent its development if possible; or, failing in this, to hold up that development until their own city could firmly establish herself as the commercial center of the Pacific Coast of America.

The San Francisco clique and the Northern Pacific delayed matters, but coal, however, happens to be a commodity which does not deteriorate so long as it is left in the ground. We waited until we became strong enough to force development.

When the people of King County, on that May day of 1873, started in to build a railroad across the mountains, they hoped to solve two of the big problems which then confronted them. One of these was connections by rail with the outside world; the other was quicker and cheaper means of bringing coal from the mines to salt water. By the end of the year 1875 the mines at Renton were able to ship their coal by rail, and a short time after the road had reached the Newcastle mine and had made available the vast quantity stored in those rich hills which is not yet exhausted after sixty years of shipment.

The coal road did not stop there, but pushed on up the Cedar River, reached into the Ravensdale-Black Diamond, Franklin field, where other rich beds were discovered and opened during the decade following 1880.

Fortunes have been made out of King County coal, but, the usual fate of the pioneer discoverer is seen in the history of the mines--most of the wealth produced went to the men who later obtained possession of them, and, because of their money, were able to do the development work--the original locater being forced to step aside and see others reap the benefit of his early toil.

Coal mining in the state may be said to date from 1848, when small outcroppings of lignite were worked to some extent along the banks of the Cowlitz.

Pioneer explorers who went up the rivers during the early '5Os kept their eyes open for possible coal discoveries, and reported outcropping beds in various parts of the country. In 1851, Captain Pattle, while hunting timber for the Hudson's Bay Company, discovered the vein underlying the present City .of Bellingham. As this coal mine presented no difficult transportation problem, it was soon opened, and for some twenty-five years was a producer. The quality was very low, and when, in 1878, the mine became flooded with water following a fire, it was given up and remained closed for many years. Recently another and better vein was opened, and considerable coal is now being mined there. It was from the Sehome mine, as it was then called, that the first cargoes of coal were shipped from Puget Sound to San Francisco.

The King County coal fields were discovered by Dr. M. Bigelow, who while clearing land on his donation claim on Black River, not far from the present Town of Renton, accidentally uncovered a bed of coal in 1853. The mine was opened by Bigelow, Fanjoy and Eaton, the two latter being killed in the Yakima Valley during the Indian war of 1855-56. The mine was worked in a small way, and it is said one schooner load of 300 tons was sent to San Francisco, where it sold for $30 per ton. The demand .from the California market was so great that Doctor Bigelow was offered $24,000 for the mine, an offer he could not accept because at this time the property was bonded to Capt. William Webster for $20,000. The Indian war put an end to operations at this mine,. which was not reopened at the close of hostilities. Numerous efforts have been made in recent years to operate this and other veins in that vicinity, but they have not proved financially successful.

L. B. Andrews came out of the Squak Valley in the fall of 1862 carrying on his back a flour sack of coal which he had dug out of the hillside above the present Town of Issaquah. Taking the coal to the blacksmith shop of William Perkins and the small foundry of John Suffern, both of them pronounced it of excellent quality. Andrews was a gunsmith by trade and had a small shop on First Avenue at that time. He came to Seattle in the fall of 1860 and a warm friendship at once sprung up between him and the writer and continued steadfast until his death more than fifty years later.

In his gunshop he and I organized the first chess club in Seattle. It had only two members for many years.

But to return to our coal. The writer witnessed Andrews' personal tests of his coal in a small forge connected with his shop, and we pronounced it excellent.

Perkins and Andrews soon formed a partnership. Like all the succeeding pioneer coal companies, Andrews and Perkins found that the development of their mine and the transportation of its product to market required more capital than they could command, so the property remained undeveloped until the completion of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad in 1888.

The Seattle Gazette for August 11, 1863, said that Andrews had opened three veins, one above the other, within a distance of one-fourth mile up the mountain side, and that these veins ranged from 12 to 20 feet in thickness. Workmen were reported to be engaged in opening a road from the mines to Lake Sammamish, also that the coal was to be hauled to the lake and then shipped on barges to Seattle by way of the Lake Sammamish, Lake Washington, Black and Duwamish River route. In December, H. Butler had become interested in the mine to the extent of inducing San Francisco capitalists to come to Seattle and investigate the proposition. These men, Craig, Aiken and Bigley, visited the mine and reported "a bed of coal unsurpassed by anything of the kind in any part of the world."

The same paper of February 2, 1864, published the following editorially: "While many of the coal-struck inhabitants have been engaged in wordy discussions of the quickest and best way to render the Squak coal mines available, and to bring the precious stuff down to the salt chuck, Mr. William Perkins went quietly to work, built a boat of about five tons burden, provisioned her, and with a couple of aboriginal sailors for a crew, made his way up the Duwamish and Black rivers, through the lakes to the mines, loaded, returned by the same route, and on Wednesday last reappeared at Yesler's wharf with about five tons of the veritable Squak coal--the first ever brought to market. The time occupied in making this first trip by water to Squak was about twenty days, and the distance traveled in going and coming is nearly 140 miles; but Mr. Perkins was obliged to cut his way through brush and logs that choked the channel of the long, crooked slough connecting Isquawh and Washington lakes, and to lay on his oars over a week at the mines awaiting favorable weather to take in his load. He is confident that the round trip may be made in half the time mentioned, and that between the mines and the landing on Washington Lake, two miles east of town, it may be made in a few days. Mr. Perkins started back on Saturday for another load, and if it even takes him two or three weeks to make a trip by this roundabout route, the scarcity of coal for home consumption, and the price it readily commands, will yield a nice little profit for his labor. Perseverance like this is deserving of success, and we hope Mr. Perkins will win it.

Consider the courage, determination and unconquerable industry involved in such a trip. The scow had to be "poled" up the Duwamish, Black and Squak streams. Long poles were used that reached the bed of the stream, and then the crew walked from the bow to the stern of the crafts. One of the crew held it stationary until the others had again reached the bow. On the lakes, if the wind were favorable, a sail was set, but most of the time the craft was propelled by long oars, "sweeps" they were nautically termed. The coal was brought to the south end of Squak in a wagon and there loaded on the scow by hand. The return voyage was much less arduous for the crew.

In the fall of 1863 Edwin Richardson was surveying out a township on the eastern side of Lake Washington when he accidentally discovered a bed of coal on the north bank of what has since been known as Coal Creek. At that time coal was not considered as a mineral by the United States Government, and coal lands were subject to entry under the preemption laws. With the announcement of the new discovery at Coal Creek, prospectors were soon in the district. and had filed a number of claims. Among these were Edwin Richardson, Ira Woodin, Finley Campbell, William Perkins, P. H. Lewis, Josiah Settle, C. B. Bagley and others. With two districts being developed in the county, Seattle now commenced to "talk coal" in earnest. The Gazette printed maps of the coal fields, and active development commenced.

While the pioneer coal mine owners were men without large bank accounts, they did have the physical strength to go at the development work with pick and shovel. The work moved slowly for the first few years, but in 1865-66 the people of Seattle commenced to realize that they had great wealth in the coal mines right at their doors and that development work must be hurried along. Rev. George F. Whitworth, a man who had had considerable experience in eastern mining regions, became interested in the matter and moved from Olympia to Seattle in 1866. He, together with Rev. Daniel Bagley, P. H. Lewis, John Ross and Selucius Garfielde, organized and incorporated the Lake Washington Coal Company, which company opened the first tunnel on the hillside above Coal Creek and brought out some of the coal, it being carried out in sacks.

A light draft barge was built and arrangements were completed for moving the coal to the bay by way of Black River. The coal was brought down in a wagon from the mine on a road specially constructed for it at a cost of more than $2,000, a sum at that time far more important than today.

The future looked bright to the mine owners, but the barge grounded in the shallow waters of Black River and caused trouble. The coal was finally landed on Hinds, Stone & Company's dock and was advertised for sale at $8 per ton. This firm had recently constructed a wharf at the rear of their store on the west side of First Avenue South, midway between Washington and Main streets, and had built up quite a shipping center there. The customs officers seized the barge because it was operating in salt water without a license--a little matter of detail which the coal barons had overlooked. Peace was arranged upon the payment of a fine of $50 and the barge went back after more coal, which was in great demand. Handicapped by lack of funds, the mine owners realized they had a very hard problem to solve. There was lots of money in coal, they had the coal, but they did not have the capital with which to build the roads, barges, cars and tugs necessary to transport that coal to the anxiously waiting market.

The United States revenue cutter Lincoln came into the harbor about this time and some of this coal was given to the captain with a request that he give it a trial. One of the amusing things about this test is that the captain reported the new coal created too much heat and came near melting down the smoke stacks of his vessel. This may have been hard on smoke stacks, but it was great news for the owners of the mines, and they were much encouraged with the report.

Realizing that the development of its mines was a task requiring more money than its stockholders could command, the Lake Washington Coal Company in the spring of 1868 entered into an agreement with Capt. C. F. Winsor for the sale of the property. Captain Winsor, it was understood, was acting for San Francisco parties who had large capital to invest in the Seattle coal fields. After a long summer of inactivity, the officials of the company learned that he was merely a broker who had tried to make a fat fee out of the sale, but had overloaded the deal with commissions and could not induce his people to invest.

During the summer word was received in Seattle that Captain Winsor had come to the Sound and that his boat was then at Olympia discharging cargo. As Seattle was not at that time visited by this line of steamers, and the company wished to know what the captain was doing with regard to the sale, it was decided to send a party out to see him. Rev. George F. Whitworth, P. H. Lewis, and C. B. Bagley accordingly rowed across the bay to Alki, where a fire was built and preparations made to intercept Captain Winsor's boat when it came along during the night. The boat was late in getting away from Olympia and it was near morning before it was seen coming down the Sound on its way to San Francisco. The steamer was held while the party discussed the coal question, which goes to show that schedules were somewhat elastic in those days. In San Francisco some interest was awakened in the King County coal fields, and T. A. Blake, a young mining engineer, was sent to the Sound in the summer of 1868, with instructions to make an investigation of the field. Blake's report, which was never published, shows him to have been a very far-sighted observer. In speaking of the Coal Creek (Newcastle) field, he says "The lower one alone of these three beds will probably furnish a greater mass of good coal in a given length and breadth than any mine yet worked on the Pacific Coast of America. It will not be easy to overestimate the future importance of the Seattle coal field to the commercial and productive interests of the Pacific Coast; notwithstanding the heavy outlay which will be required to open the mines upon a proper scale, and to put the coal in the market."

Blake's report was filed away; the Seattle people were to be allowed to develop their mines without the assistance of California capital. Seattle people were accustomed to having their projects turned down by outsiders, and they also knew how to take one of these rejected projects and make it successful; so they organized a new mining company under the name of the Seattle Coal Company, incorporated February 1, 1870, and at the same time a handling company under the name of the Seattle Coal and Transportation Company, the latter to have charge of delivering the output from the mine at Newcastle to the ships on Elliott Bay.. The Seattle Coal Company succeeded the old Lake Washington Company, the main stockholders being Ruel Robinson, Amos Hurst, Albro M. Pringle, Martin L. Chamberlain, Edwin Eells, Thomas Flannagan, George H. Greer, A. N. Merrick, George F. Whitworth and C. B. Bagley. This corporation bought the interest of the old company, except that of Lewis and Ross, and now owned the 480 acres comprising the claims of Edwin Richardson, Josiah Settle and C. B. Bagley. There were 10,000 shares of stock, the value of which was placed at $1,000,000.

The market for its product open, this product tested and approved, its mines in workable shape with tunnels run and output guaranteed, the new owners felt sure of success, provided the transportation problem could be solved. It was decided to move the coal through Lakes Union and Washington by barges carrying the cars, which would be run over tram roads to be built between the lakes and also from the south end of Lake Union to the bunkers to be erected at the foot of Pike Street. The transportation company, composed of Robinson, Hurst and Peter Bartell, started work on this line in the spring of 1871, and every man who wanted to work was given a chance at railroad building. There were no steam shovels in those days and the road builders went at the job with pick and shovel and wheelbarrow, but they finished the road and .moved coal over it for many years.

The cars were loaded with coal in the mine, let down the long inclined tram to Lake Washington, where they started on the first part of their barge trip. At Union Bay they were moved from the barge to the portage tram, over which they were hauled to Lake Union to be again loaded onto a barge for a trip to the south end of the lake, where they were again on the tram rails bound for the bunkers at the foot of Pike Street. These tram rails were six inches wide, made of wood and surfaced with strap iron. The car wheels were spread out so as to reduce wear, as each car had. a capacity of two tons. The coal was handled eleven times in its trip from mine to bunker, the transporting cost amounting to about $5 per ton. The company spent $25,000 in preparing to handle the coal, and after several months of operation sold out to Charles D. Shattuck and S.. Dinsmore, of San Francisco, who in turn sold the business, after having made several improvements, to Osgood & Remington, who operated the line until 1880; when it, together with the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad, passed under the control of Henry Villard and the Oregon Improvement Company.

For two years this railroad was operated without a franchise from the city council, that body approving the franchise ordinance, which was Ordinance No. 55, on May 7, 1874. Almost two years later the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company was granted a right of way for the line which had then been in operation for four years. The right of way was granted in Ordinance No. 85, approved by the council January 25, 1876. These were the first railroad ordinances ever passed by Seattle, and to the fifth council, composed of John Collins, mayor, and John Leary, Robert Abrams, J. S. Anderson, Isaiah Waddell, James McKinley and William Meydenbauer, councilmen, belongs the honor of passing Ordinance No. 55, while the seventh council, which approved the right of way ordinance, was composed of Bailey Gatzert, mayor; Benjamin Murphy, G. W. Hall, Josiah Settle, Isaiah Waddell, J. R. Robbins, J. H. Hall and John Leary.

While under the management of Dinsmore, the first railway excursion ever run in the Puget Sound country was conducted over the line from the Pike Street bunkers to Lake Union. The locomotive, called "The Bodie," was brought up from San Francisco early in the year 1872. Upon its arrival the company issued an invitation to everybody to come and take a ride. Nearly everybody in Seattle had worked to build the road and now they were to have a free ride behind the first locomotive to toot its whistle amid the dark recesses of King County's forests. In reporting the excursion the Intelligencer of March 25, 1872, says:

"'Friday last was decidedly a holiday in this city, owing to the opportunity afforded everyone to indulge in the novelty of a free ride behind the first locomotive that ever whistled and snorted and dashed through the dense forests surrounding the waters of Puget Sound. Business in town was not exactly suspended, but it might very near as well have been, as an excursion on Dinsmore's Railroad, connecting Union Lake with the Sound, with its constantly departing and returning train of cars during the day, seemed uppermost in the minds of all, and pretty much monopolized every other consideration." The locomotive and its eight new coal cars were kept moving from 11: A. M. until everybody in town had had a ride at about 5: P. M., the round trip being made in about half an hour.

By the end of May the company had finished its long trestle to deep water and ships were receiving their coal direct from the cars into which it had been loaded at the mine. This reduced the cost of handling and by the end of September the sixty men employed in the mines and the fifteen in the transportation department were turning from 75 to 100 tons of coal daily into the bunkers and ships at the foot of Pike Street. The company was operating ninety-two cars, with more under construction, had just finished the construction of twenty-five houses at the mine and was preparing to greatly increase the output.

The first cargo of Newcastle coal to be carried away from Seattle consisted of 405 tons, which was shipped to San Francisco on board the bark Moneynick in the year 1870. The Intelligencer in the early part of the year 1880 gave the following figures covering coal exports in tons from Seattle for the previous ten year period: 1871, 4,918; 1872, 14,830; 1873, 13,572; 1874, 9,027; 1875, 70,157; 1876, 104,556; 1877, 112,734; 1878, 128,582; 1879, 132,263. Of this 790,639 tons the Renton Mine had supplied 33,419 tons, while the Talbot had furnished 23,426 tons. Some idea of the importance of the Newcastle mine may be obtained when it is remembered that all the rest of this coal had been dug out of its beds. During the month of December, 1879, the following vessels loaded at Seattle coal bunkers: The ships Eldorado, Alaska, Two Brothers; bark J. B. Bell; barkentine Tam O'Shanter, and the schooners Excelsior and Reporter. The greater part of this exported coal went to San Francisco, not to exceed fifteen thousand tons being divided between other ports, one of which was Honolulu.

The trestle work and bunkers of the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company were the most prominent objects on the water front in 1877. These works represented an investment of $30,000 and extended into the bay a distance of 800 feet. On June 16th, while the Western Shore and Washington Libby were lying at the chutes loading coal, the entire structure suddenly fell into the bay, teredoes having eaten off the piles which about eleven months before had been driven into the mud at the bottom of the bay. Although the bunkers contained some 1,450 tons of coal at the time, the boats escaped with minor injuries.

From 1880, until 1887, the mine was a heavy producer, the output running from 118,742 tons in 1883 to 231,816 in 1885.

By the end of the year 1883 these mines were producing 55 per cent of the total coal produced in the territory and 22 per cent of the total for the Pacific Coast. The output for 1890 was 159,524 tons. Annual production continued well above the 100,000 ton mark until 1900, when the mine was closed down and remained unproductive for a time.

Labor troubles in 1886 reduced the output to 22,453 tons, and in 1887 the hoisting works at the mouth of the mine caught fire. This fire spread into the mine, where it burned for some months, necessitating the closing down of the works. At that time the mine was producing from 150 to 200 tons a day, demand was strong and prices were high, coal selling at the Seattle docks for $5 per ton, a price $1 per ton higher than had been obtained at any time during the previous ten years. Notwithstanding the labor troubles and fires the output of the Newcastle Mine had reached the grand total of 1,740,000 tons by the end of the year 1887.

On January 24, 1867, the Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating the Coal Creek Road Company and giving it authority to build a rail or tram road from a point on Lake Washington, near the outlet of Coal Creek, to a point about three miles eastward in section 27, township 24 north, range 5 east, of the Willamette meridian. The act gave the company the right to appropriate a strip of land 100 feet wide for the entire length of the proposed road, together with such lands as it might need for warehouses at terminals, and provided that no other road should be laid out within fifty feet. The company, composed of William W. Perkins, John Denny, H. L. Yesler, John J. McGilvra, C. J. Noyes, C. H. Hale and Lewis C. Gunn, was incorporated with a capital stock of $5,000, with the privilege of increasing the same to $500,000.

H. L. Yesler was president and Gardner Kellogg secretary.

Although the Legislature had given this company what amounted to almost an exclusive franchise up the Coal Creek Valley, which was so narrow in places as to make the building of a rival line a physical impossibility nothing was done by the company until in August, when it advertised for bids for the construction of the road. The date set for opening these bids was August 20th, but if any were submitted they must have been unsatisfactory, as the company again advertised, setting the date forward to September 2nd, with the same result on that date.

Nothing more was heard of the company until November 4th, when it held a meeting of its stockholders. The meeting was well attended, Yesler, Denny and McGilvra being elected directors. The company spent considerable money on the project and built its road to its Coal Creek claims, bringing out some coal over the line, but the enterprise was not successful, and by the end of the winter of 1867-68 was in bad financial condition. Its stockholders failed to meet their payments, the Intelligencer of April 25 stating that the company had sold six shares of stock for non-payment of assessments. Something like thirty thousand dollars had been spent and lost. During the latter part of April the road was sold to the same San Francisco parties who had bought the Lake Washington Coal Company properties, but as this afterward proved to be a brokerage deal with no money behind it, the Coal Creek Road stockholders failed to realize anything out of their investment.

Had the money wasted on this project been invested in providing transportation from the Newcastle Mine to Seattle, the history of the coal industry in King County would have been vastly different from what it is. It could have remained in the ownership of Seattle people and would not have passed to San Francisco capitalists, who later furnished the money for its development and absorbed the profits Seattle learned her lesson; her people saw the danger of dividing their forces and from that time onward were to be found united whenever the task to be accomplished was of sufficient magnitude to require such united action.

The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad made substantial progress in 1876. James M. Colman was interested in it, and not only put in a big block of his own money, but secured other money as well; he also assumed the superintendency. Piledrivers were engaged, and the town end of the road was built; the first locomotive engine (called the A. A. Denny) was secured and construction begun on a large number of cars, of which the cast iron, wheels and woodwork were the product of local shops and mechanics. Construction work was not allowed to stop with the year. By March 7, 1877, the road was completed to the Town of Renton, and was formally opened that day. Excursion trains were run, and everybody carried free. It was a happy occasion for Seattle, Renton and Duwamish Valley people. Next day the hauling of coal trains began. The remainder of the year was spent in extending the road toward Newcastle, in completing the wharf and incline in town, in building new cars, getting new engines and generally preparing for greater things. Newcastle was reached by the company with its rails, engines and cars February 5, 1878, and the same day a train with fifty tons of coal was brought from the mine to town. The Seattle Coal and Transportation Company at once abandoned the lake route, laying up the boats, taking up the rails, disposing of its rolling stock and leaving to ruin all connected with the old transportation route that was not salable. The railroad company, on the contrary, lengthened its wharf so as to accommodate four vessels at a time, ran four locomotives and fifty coal cars, moved from four to eight hundred tons of coal a day, carried the mails, secured a large traffic, and made its property one of the most lucrative and promising railroad ventures in the country.

In 1873 E. M. Smithers prospected the country around the present Town of Renton. The streams showed signs of coal and Mr. Smithers was satisfied that beds of it existed in the neighborhood. After devoting considerable time to the district he had about made up his mind to give up the search when he found coal float in one of the small streams. Following this float up stream he came to a place beyond which the coal seemed to be absent, so ascending the bank he prospected the hillside and found the bed with almost the first stroke of his pick. Together with T. B. Morris and C. B. Shattuck, Mr. Smithers organized the Renton Coal Company, and the mine was opened,. A tramway was built to the Duwamish River, the cars pulled by horses, and the coal brought in barges to the bunkers on the Yesler wharf in Seattle, the steamer Addie being built and used for the purpose of towing barges. Among those in the Renton Company were Ruel Robinson, C. B. Shattuck, T. B. Morris and E. M. Smithers. Close upon this discovery was that of the Talbot vein in the vicinity. The coal was excellent in quality, and soon was popular in the local market. By the end of 1874, the output was ten tons a day. In 1875 it was greatly increased. A quarter interest was then sold to Pope, Talbot and Walker, the Port Gamble mill owners for $25,000. The steamer Wenat was brought from the Columbia River. Ships, in the bay were loaded from barges by both the Renton and Talbot companies, selling coal then by the cargo for $6 a ton. In 1875 the two companies shipped to San Francisco 13,240 tons of coal, and in 1876, 26,707 tons.

Before the coming of the railroad the Renton and Talbot mines passed through several years of, transportation troubles, during which their barges turned turtle in the river or bay, their steamboats "snagged" and the coal sank into the water. On October 14, 1874, the Renton Coal Company launched the little steamer Addie from the shipyard of William Hammond at the foot of Cherry Street. The launching of the Addie was celebrated by the firing of cannon and the blowing of all the steam whistles which the town had at the time. She measured 110 feet long, 19 feet beam, with a depth of hold of 4 feet 6 inches, and was placed under the command of Capt. H. H. Hyde. Within a short time Hammond had finished a large barge and the Addie commenced her work of towing coal. Several other barges were built for this service during the fall, each of them being 80 feet long by 20 feet wide, with a capacity of eighty tons.

Early in the spring of 1874 John Collins, J. F. McNaught, John Leary and M. Padden opened the Talbot Mine at Renton under the superintendency of the latter. Development work was prosecuted with vigor and within a year the company had driven a tunnel 16 feet wide and 11 feet high for a distance of 450 feet, exposing a vein of coal ten feet across the face. They had obtained 320 acres of land and also had built a mile of railroad from the mine opening to the landing on Black River, where coal bunkers were being erected.

More railroad was built in 1875, and in 1876 the Seattle & Walla Walla reached the mine and the water route was abandoned. The mine was a continuous producer until 1886, when it was closed, remaining unproductive until 1895, when the Renton Cooperative Coal Company obtained possession of the property and opened up some new beds. The mine became the property of the Seattle Electric Company in 1901, since which time, with occasional interruptions, it has been one of the heavy producers of the county.

The addition of the Renton and Talbot mines to those of the Newcastle district at this time was a most fortunate circumstance, as Seattle coal operations were now able to furnish employment for many of the men which the panic of '73 had made idle. Yesler made extensions to his wharf and the Renton and Talbot companies built large bunkers there; Wilson & Sons and other iron workers were kept busy casting mine car wheels; the mills were sawing lumber, and by the close of the year 1875 Seattle's waterfront was a busy place, her citizens were at work and her merchants were doing a good business, the holiday trade being placed at $20,000 that year. With the coming of the railroad to the mines production increased, the facilities for handling the product keeping pace with the output, so that by 1881, J. M. Colman, then manager of the railroad, was able to load 1,200 tons of coal into the hold of a vessel directly from the cars of the railway company. This was a great advantage as it saved extra handling, breakage to the coal and enabled a ship to obtain its cargo in much quicker time.

As has been shown, nearly all of the King County coal mines, early in their history, passed into the control of foreign corporations. That these foreign owners have considered the local mining industry from the standpoint of dividends only is shown by the fact that these same dividends, or profits, annually reach a sum greater than the amount paid in wages to King County coal miners, the great majority of whom are citizens of foreign nations. It would seem that with such vast quantities of coal as this county possesses, the importation of an outside product for the purpose of supplying local demand would be unnecessary. These foreign owners, in order that they might declare larger profits to their stockholders, placed a price upon the local product which made these importations not only possible but highly profitable, and during the last twenty-five years, more than one fortune has been made through supplying the people of this city with coal mined east of the Cascade Mountains, in British Columbia and even in far away Australia.

By far the greater part of the profits made through the development of the timber industry, with its saw and shingle mills, its sash, door, barrel and other woodworking factories, have remained in the state where they have contributed to the comfort and well being of the people. Such, however, is not true of King County coal, one of the greatest assets Seattle ever possessed, and it is to be regretted that its profits have gone to enrich other states, while our own people in their efforts to be loyal to the local product have been forced to pay these profits, knowing at the time the true condition existing in the industry. The pioneer did not possess the capital required to develop the mines. He could have held on to his claims, in which event the development of the country would have been retarded; but he sold, hoping the resultant development would justify his sacrifice. For every hundred dollars invested by the foreign purchasers of the mines, thousands have flowed, and continue to flow, into their pockets; all because the pioneer did not have, and could not borrow the capital required for paying the expenses of developing his claims.

During the last fifteen years several new mines have been opened in King County, some of which, like the Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company's at Taylor, the Grand Ridge east of Issaquah and others have produced coal in commercial quantities. King County production passed the million mark in 1902 with 1,012,217 tons to its credit, and reached the maximum in 1907 with 1,416,509 tons. The heavy increase in the production of California fuel oil during the last few years has forced curtailment of the coal output, with the result that King County mines produced but 844,701 tons in 1915. Many heat and power producing plants have substituted the new fuel for coal, but now that oil prices are beginning to rise, King County mining promises to again take the place in the industry which nature, through her great generosity, intended it should occupy.

Notwithstanding the fact that Washington coal mines are under very rigid inspection laws, they produce their share of accidents, and tragedies, in which men lose their lives and leave women as widows and children as orphans.

During the '80s the wharf and coal bunkers on King Street were a notable feature of Seattle's waterfront. They were wiped out by the Great Fire of June, 1889.

That transportation was the main problem confronting the coal mine operators in King County is shown by the history of the Issaquah field. It was from this mine that L. B. Andrews dug the first flour sack of really good coal ever brought into Seattle. This was in 1863, but it was not until the building of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, now the Northern Pacific's North Bend branch, in 1888, that this immense body of coal was made available to the market. The Seattle Coal & Iron Company was organized in 1887, with a capital stock of $5;000,000. D. H. Gilman was president; Henry Crawford, vice president; J. A. Jameson, treasurer, and F. H. Whitworth, manager. The object of the company was the development of the Issaquah Mine, also the iron prospects on the south fork of the Snoqualmie River near the summit, which at that time were supposed to be of great value. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the company hoped to become a big factor in the Pacific Coast coal market, which was then controlled by the Oregon Improvement Company and the Dunsmuir interests of Vancouver Island.

The company owned 1,497 acres of coal land, with at least five veins running from 6 to 14 feet in thickness, said to be one of the largest and richest fields in the country. Development work was started on a scale which it was thought would produce from 300 to 500 tons a day, and the first shipments were made in 1888. The iron mines proved to be prospects only, but Issaquah made good as a coal camp, averaging over one hundred thousand tons annual production from 1892 to 1904, when it was closed. Under the management of the Superior Coal and Improvement Company the field was again opened in 1910. Very little coal was produced by this company. In 1912, it gave place to the Issaquah & Superior Coal Mining Company, which spent a great deal of money in bringing the mines again into production. They yielded 80,994 tons in 1914.

The Black Diamond Coal Company was organized in California in 1864, and through its development of the Black Diamond mines at Nortonville in the Mount Diablo district of Contra Costa County early arose to a position of prominence in the industry on this coast. All through the early days promoters of new projects went to California for their capital, and it was in this way that the Black Diamond Company obtained possession of the coal mines at Coos Bay, Ore., and Bellingham Bay in Whatcom County. The company marketed great quantities of coal from these three districts, but as the product of none of them came up to that of the King County mines in quality, it was decided to obtain a mine in this district.

P. B. Cornwall was at the head of the Black Diamond Company when it decided to enter the King County field in 1880, and it was under his direction that Victor E. Tull was sent north from San Francisco with instructions to explore all the coal fields of the Puget Sound country with the object of discovering new and better veins. The company desired to find a better coal than the Newcastle, which at that time was the best coal being shipped from King County. Tull began his work on the banks of the Skagit River; continuing south many veins were examined, many samples sent to San Francisco for testing, but it was not until July, 1880, that he discovered the great beds which are known to underlie the Black Diamond-Franklin-Ravensdale field. The small samples which Tull had sent to San Francisco were found to show such high quality that the company sent B. B. Jones, a coal expert, who had been employed by the company at its Mount Diablo mines for some years, to Seattle with instruction to continue the prospecting of the district. Jones' report of what he found was so favorable that the company at once put a crew of men at work opening what has since been known as Mine No.14 of the Black Diamond group.

With plenty of money at its disposal the company pushed its development work along very rapidly and in January, 1882, had a crew of men at work building houses, cutting trails to the river and opening the vein of coal. On April 7, 1882, Tull loaded a box of 800 pounds of Black Diamond coal on board the Idaho for shipment to San Francisco, the shipment being made that the company might submit the coal to more exhaustive tests than had yet been given it. These tests proved to be so satisfactory that President Cornwall decided to pay the mines a visit. Morgan Morgans was at that time the company superintendent at the Mount Diablo mines and Cornwall asked him to come to King County with him. The two men left San Francisco on June 7, 1882, on board the steamer State of California, and arrived in Seattle June 9th, by way of Astoria, Kalama and Tacoma. The next day they obtained a wagon and driver and set out for the mines. Some eight miles beyond Renton the driver was sent back to Seattle and the men continued their trip on horseback.

Following the visit of Cornwall and Morgans the Oregon Improvement Company sent Harry Whitworth and a crew of surveyors into the field for the purpose of surveying an extension of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad from Renton to the mines. The survey was completed in June and within a short time construction work was started on the new line.

At this time King County was producing sufficient coal to keep the steamships Willamette, Umatilla and Walla Walla constantly engaged in carrying it to San Francisco, the three boats averaging five trips per month and carrying 2,200 tons per trip.

Morgan Morgans was sent to King County in 1885 as general superintendent of the Black Diamond mines, the first coal in anything like commercial quantities being taken out in March of that year. The railroad had been finished, the company had a large number of men employed and by the end of the year 43,868 tons of the new coal had been taken out of the ground. It was of high quality and was soon very popular as a steam producing fuel. Morgans remained in charge of the mines until they were acquired by the Pacific Coast Coal Company in 1904, and under his direction other veins were opened in the district, which took first place in King County coal production in 1895, a place which it has held for many years.

With the opening of the Black Diamond mines, and the completion of the Cedar River extension in 1884, prospectors began searching for other veins of coal in the district, and it was not long before it was found that the outcropping discovered by Tull was in the center of a large coal field. Many prospects were opened and some of them, notably those of Franklin, Ravensdale and Lawson, soon became heavy producers. Development work on the Franklin Mine was begun during the summer of 1885, and was hurried along with such vigor that the mine had produced 7,854 tons of coal by the end of the year. This mine is located about three miles east of the Black Diamond mines, and, like them, was long a heavy producer of high quality coal. It was opened by the Oregon Improvement Company, later passing into the hands of the Pacific Coast Coal Company. The field reached its highest production in 1900 with 167,600 tons taken out that year.

The Ravensdale mines began shipping in 1900 under the management of the Leary Coal Company. The first year's output was 48,000 tons, which was increased to 184,370 in 1895. The mine passed under the control of the Northwestern Improvement Company, subsidiary to the Northern Pacific Railway, and produced 127,972 tons in 1914. An explosion destroyed the mine in 1915, killing thirty-one workmen, since which time it has been abandoned by the company.

Through the building of the Cedar River extension of the Columbia and Puget Sound Railway the mine at Cedar Mountain was developed by the Cedar Mountain Coal Company, Samuel Blair, president; Laurence Colman, secretary, and J. M. Colman, manager. Although development work was not started until in August, 1884, the mine had produced 1,732 tons by the end of that year. This property was never what could be called a heavy producer and after being operated for some twenty years was closed because of faults.

Coal mining has contributed its share of the comedy and melodrama, as well as tragedy to the romance surrounding the development of the Puget Sound country. Promising prospects which filled their discoverers with high hopes of financial success have often failed to produce the desired results. Rich mines have been discovered only to be lost to the original locators; fortunes have been lost and other fortunes won, and notwithstanding all the wealth which has been taken out of the mines of King County during the last sixty years, there remains today a body of coal of unknown vastness, which, as the ,years roll along, will continue to produce wealth, not only for the men who own and operate the mines, but for the manufacturers, transportation lines and the army of people who depend upon these and allied industries for a living, and make Seattle their home.

"The Pacific Coast Company" of today is a gigantic corporation and has a long lineage. The Lake Washington Coal Company, Seattle Coal Company, Dinsmore and Shattuck, Osgood and Remington, Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad Company, Oregon Improvement Company, Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad Company, Black Diamond Coal Company, Franklin Coal Company, Pacific Coast Steamship Company, and perhaps other local companies, are all centered today in the one company, which has its head office in New York City with Walter Barnum, president.

Operations on what later were known as the Newcastle Coal Mines began in 1867, and in the sixty-one years that have passed The Pacific Coast Company, under its several organizations, has done more toward the development of King County's' resources and the upbuilding of Seattle and outlying towns and communities, than any other corporation.

In early days most of the output of its mines went to San Francisco and it owned and operated a fleet of steamships as coal carriers with many independent sailing vessels in the same trade. The steamships were Mississippi, Walla Walla, Umatilla, San Pedro, Montara, sailing ships Spartan, Germania, Ivanhoe, Two Brothers, Dashing Wave, Kennebeck and many others were built for the coal trade, but as the shipments gradually lessened they were converted into passenger ships.

These ocean shipments at one time reached 30,000 tons per month; today, aside from what ocean steamers take from its bunkers for fuel and the fuel supply of the Alaskan canneries and some of its towns it has no ocean shipments of coal.

From time to time its mines have been apparently "worked out," and mining operations have shut down; later to be resumed when other vein's have been discovered and opened up.

Franklin and Newcastle Old Town are deserted villages and Black Diamond is only partially tenanted by the miners who work in the new mine near Elliott Station, in Cedar River Valley, who are transported to and fro daily by the company.

Recently its mines at Newcastle have resumed their youth and in November 1928, they produced a daily average of 743 tons and the new Black Diamond mine yielded a daily average during that month of 1,374 tons.

Their briquet plant on the eastern shore of Lake Washington has an eight-hour capacity of 500 tons but its demands are seasonable, ranging from 250 to 500 tons daily. The coal it uses comes about equally from the company's mine at Carbonado and from its King County mines.

It is a fact worthy of note that within the memory of our older citizens it was necessary to send abroad a thousand tons of King County coal daily for a market and that today the output of more than two thousand tons a day is nearly all consumed at home, notwithstanding the invasion of crude oil and the largely increased use of electricity for heating purposes

Years ago the company sold all of its steamships sailing out of Seattle, but recently it bought two ships from the United States Shipping Board which will be used in its Alaskan traffic with limestone for its Seattle cement plant as return cargoes. They have already brought down nearly forty thousand tons for that purpose.

The Pacific Coast Railway Company, at San Luis Obispo, Calif., is one of its branches. Its local organization is divided into Railroad Company, Steamship Company, Engineering Company and Cement Company.

Much of the present day details about the company were supplied by Glen F. Clancy, general superintendent, and William Claussen, district sales manager.

The acquisition in 1926 of the Ravensdale Coal Mines by the Continental Coal Company of Seattle has meant the rejuvenation of Ravensdale, one of the pioneer mining towns, originally established in 1885.

Ravensdale is on the Northern Pacific Railway, about three and one-half miles northeast of Black Diamond. The Continental Fuel Company is one of the largest of the independent coal miners and dealers in King County. Recently that company acquired, under the name of the Dale Coal Company, Sections 1, 31, and 36 from the Northern Pacific Railway. This includes the townsite of Ravensdale, which has been largely rehabilitated, there being fifty-seven children in school at the present time, with a gymnasium and other facilities for them. Ninety votes were cast in Ravensdale precinct in the presidential election of 1928. In the two mines, the Dale and McKay, there are 100 employees.

The beds already located, which include the famous McKay seam, contain 55,000,000 tons of coal, according to the estimate of such a well known geologist as George Watkins Evans. The company has constructed and is operating a modern colliery with a capacity of 1,000 tons of coal a day, and has many miles of underground workings. In 1928 these mines produced more than fifty thousand tons of steam and domestic coal, while plans for 1929 include 100,000 tons.

The property embraces nine seams of coal, only two of which are being worked at the present time. In conjunction with the colliery, a modern briquetting plant with a daily capacity of 100 tons has been built. The company employs a German formula for the conversion of non-coking into coking fuel. The plant is at present in course of reconstruction to repair damage by a recent fire.

More than any other local industry, uncertainty has ever attended coal prospecting and mining. Discoveries that for a time aroused hopes of financial success have failed; rich mines have been opened and operated for a time with large profit and suddenly disappeared, but other discoveries were made. Geologists tell us that there are vast deposits of coal underlying much of King County, and notwithstanding all the wealth which has been taken out of the mines of the county during the past sixty years there probably remain today bodies of coal which in future years will continue a source of wealth.

The production in the King County mines has been much increased during the year 1928. The state keeps close watch upon mining operations and each year presents an interesting tabulated report of the total production, the number of men employed, the number of their working days, and the tons per day per man taken out. For the year 1927, the total tonnage in King County was 456,230; average number of employees 922; average number of days work per man 185; average tons per day per man 2.67.

During the year 1927 there were small coal mines operated in King County by independent owners and so far as I have been able to learn they are now taking out coal. Their total output for 1927, was only 177,000 tons.

Following is a list of them: Carbon Coal and Clay Company, Bayne; Caroline Coal Company, Tiger Mountain; Continental Coal Company, Black River; Dale Coal Company, Ravensdale; Elk Coal Company, Palmer; Harris Coal Company, Issaquah; California Alaska Coal Corporation, Snoqualmie; Morris Bros. Coal Company, Durham; Parkin Kangley Coal Company, Palmer; Renton Sunbeam Coal Company, Renton; Strain Coal Company, Renton; Tulloch Coal Company, Ravensdale; Enumclaw Coal Manufacturing Company, Enumclaw; Occidental Coal Company, Cumberland; Navy Mine, W. G. Kegler, Cumberland; Diamond Coal Company, Black River Junction; Danville Coal Company, Ravensdale,

History of King County, Washington By Clarence B. Bagley in 1929.