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Soon after I moved to Seattle I learned about a place called the Black Diamond Coal Mine. It has a very interesting history and I managed to sign up for a tour of the area. I had just begun to play with my son's camera and this was an opportunity to see what I could capture. It was a fun trip and we had fantastic food at the Black Diamond Bakery/Restaurant which has gained fame for its food/baked goods.
First some history courtesy of Wikipedia. For those of you who live in much older countries around our world, this being considered "history" will probably make you laugh. But we are a very young country and the northwest was one of the later additions still.
Beginning in the 1880s Black Diamond was a rural coal mining area. Eventually a town grew up around the mine and was named in honor of the Black Diamond Coal Company of California, which owned and operated the mine. The town was home to around 3,500 people by the early 1900s, many of them European immigrants; most of the working men were involved in producing coal. This coal was transported to Seattle via the Pacific Coast Coal train.
After World War I, the town shut down the mine as it was no longer viable. However a second mining boom spurred growth in the town in the early 1930s on the strength of multiple mining operations promoted by the Morris brothers through the Palmer Coking Coal Company. Mining has continued until recently through the Pacific Coast Coal Company, formerly of San Francisco. The prospect of future mining operations remains strong.
The town has been home to many famous residents, including folk musician Brandi Carlile (who grew up a few miles east in Ravensdale). The minor-league baseball star Edo Vanni was born at Black Diamond in 1918. This city was put onto the official maps on February 9, 1954, which is considered its birthdate.
The main building of the Black Diamond Historical Museum is the former train station, which served the Columbia & Puget Sound Railway 1884–1916 and the Pacific Coast Railway 1916–1951. According to a sign at the museum, there were originally two trains a day to Seattle, later only one. Regular passenger service ended in 1925, but a train still brought men to the mine until 1931, and trains continued to haul coal and freight into the 1940s.
This was the jail -- how about a night there to sober up!!!
The Black Diamond Bakery achieved regional fame in the 1970s for the quality of its breads and other baked goods, and continues to attract destination shoppers. The town's late 20th century population growth has been mostly as a commuter community for people with jobs in Seattle, Bellevue, and other suburban centers.
Bakery then!
And the bakery/restaurant today!
Rose Hill Cemetery
Although little remains of the coal mining communities, a historic cemetery serves as a monument to the lives of the former residents. Buried here are children who died in epidemics, women who died in childbirth, and men who died in mining disasters and of other things. Although over 10 nationalities resided in the mining area, Rose Hill Cemetery was a protestant burial ground, and many of the people buried here were Welsh.
Over the years, vandalism has taken its toll on the cemetery, which the Park District is attempting to restore.
The two photos of the bakery are courtesy of Wikipedia.
