This June 24, 1909 photo of the Coal Creek mine appeared on page 77 of Richard and Lucile McDonald’s book “The Coals of Newcastle.” In the foreground is the company sawmill, very active in the early 1900s, as it sawed posts, beams and railroad ties for two mines in operation: the Bagley and Ford slope. The mill also made lumber for company buildings. The barrels of water along the roof ridge were for fighting fires.
The background to the left show bunkers where mined coal was washed, picked, and sorted by size for transport to markets in Seattle. The building alongside with the tall smokestack was the steam plant which provided power to the bunker equipment. The long string of empty rail cars in the gully are awaiting load out with pea, nut, or lump coal from under those bunkers. Coal smaller than pea size was sent to the boiler plant and used as fuel. The wooden box culvert in the left foreground was an insulated conduit providing steam power for the sawmill. The steam pipes were encased in sawdust to avoid heat loss on the long trip from the boiler house. When he took this photo, Washington’s famous photographer Asahel Curtis stood on a wooden bridge over Coal Creek, which connected a wagon road leading 1.5 miles west to Newcastle. Today this area is where the Newcastle Golf Club Road turns sharply north and becomes Lakemont Boulevard. Photo #14717 comes courtesy of the Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma.
