About Black Diamond

The Black Diamond historical Society does a terrific job and provides a great service to the town of Black Diamond.  They have a great museum in town situated directly over a coal vein.  A portion of the proceeds of this race will go toward the Historical Society to help them continue to preserve the history of this great area and to continue telling the stories.

When you come to town, be sure and stop in at the Museum and say hello to Mr. Keith Watson, director of the Black Diamond Historical Society, and his friendly staff.

The Town and How it came to Be

Diane Olson

author of “Black Diamond, Mining the Memories”, 1988

 

Whenever I tell someone I’m from Black Diamond, they usually say, “Oh, yes! Black Diamond has a great bakery up there, don’t they?” You bet we have a great bakery, but black Diamond is much more.

 

Black Diamond mines were King County’s largest coal producers. Coal was the energy king 60 to 100 years ago. It was used to fuel the boilers of ships and trains and buildings. Most of Black Diamond’s coal was taken to the Seattle Waterfront, where it was loaded on ships destined for California.

 

The Black Diamond mines provided jobs for thousands of European Immigrants (Welsh, Italian, Yugoslavian, Finn, German, Scandinavian, Russian, English, and more) who were seeking problems and dangers and many of the immigrants had never seen a coal mine. Nevertheless, they adapted to a new country, the dangers of mining coal and life in a remote company town with several different ethnic communities. Their problems were different then, but their experiences and solutions were poignant, often humorous, and thought provoking.

 

Black diamond’s history has a mystique, and it is intriguing for many people including me. I always wanted to know more. It seemed that the best way to find out was to listen to the stories the “old times” kept telling. So I did.

 

Then I tried to repeat the stories, but they didn’t come out the same. That’s when I realized that these stories belonged to the tellers, and must b be told in their words. They were Black Diamond’s oral historians; people, for the most part 70 to 100 years old, with vivid clear memories and stories they were willing to share. So, about six years ago, I joined several others from the black Diamond historical Society who had already begun to conduct taped interviews. Over the years we have gathered over 50 interviews.

 

Transcribing the tapes was very long and arduous, and I ended up with over 700 pages of transcript. Then the process began of selecting the stories that were unique to black diamond and obtaining approval from each storyteller to use their written memories in this book. They were woven together to form the fabric of Black Diamond’s history. Carl Steiert’s narration throughout the book became the thread to draw them all together.

 

Photographs were added. Since the Black Diamond historical Society was formed in 1976, hundreds of photographs have been donated by many people. Their thoughtfulness has provided a broad selection of pictures from which to choose.

 

So now, the dream of many has become reality. Black Diamond has a recorded history told in the words of people who were there. The company may have owned the town, but the people owned the history.