WHEN COAL WAS KING: Morning Shift at Newcastle

This photo has achieved something of iconic status and is now known as the Morning Shift at Newcastle by Asahel Curtis, June 24, 1909. The actual site is the Coal Creek mine in the Newcastle area, with the names Coal Creek – Newcastle practically synonymous. Serious coal mining started at Newcastle (1862), then moved to nearby Coal Creek (1881), then back to Newcastle after a disastrous fire (1894), then again to Coal Creek (1900), and so on until mining ceased in 1963. The two mining centers are about 1.5 miles apart, but the mines were connected underground. This Coal Creek mine was a water level opening, meaning the mine portal went straight into the hillside under Cougar Mountain. This morning shift numbered about 100 miners sitting on a train of over 30 coal cars pulled by five electric motors, nearest to the camera. In the background are wood-frame buildings owned by Pacific Coast Coal Company who operated the mines. The miners are carrying their lunch pails and canteens. Some have carbide lamps on their caps while others use oil lamps. The most important coal seam in the Newcastle-Coal Creek area was the Bagley.  It was thickest coal seam in the area, spanning 20 or even 30 feet in some locations.  The Bagley seam was so thick it was later profitably extracted through open pit mining, starting in 1937 by the Strain Coal Company using a large diesel shovel. Surface mining by Strain continued until 1949 when the easy coal had been removed leaving some 80 to 90 acres of open pits behind.  Later those pits became a landfill for demolition debris, which was eventually reclaimed into the Golf Club at Newcastle. Research for this column was provided by Mike Intlekofer, Collections Manager of the Newcastle Historical Society. This photo number 1943.42.14713 come courtesy of the Washington State Historical Society.