This photo was taken at Palmer Coking Coal Co.’s Landsburg Mine in front of a coal stockpile located just north of Kent-Kangley in Ravensdale. From left to right were: Roy Danielson, Roe Carl, unknown, unknown, Ralph Dean, Carl Roche, John H. Morris, unknown, and Tom Dobson. The occasion was a tour for members of the Renton Housing Authority. At the time Palmer was marketing its coal to serve the heating needs of homes owned by the Renton Housing Authority. Many of those homes were built during World War II when thousands of newcomers moved to Renton to work on Boeing airplane assembly lines.
Mining on the Landsburg No. 1’s 18-foot thick seam of coal commenced in 1937 on the Danville side (i.e. Summit-Landsburg Road) of a ridge separating the Cedar River from Ravensdale. Eventually a mine opening was established at this Kent-Kangley location, located 1.5 miles east of Four Corners. The Danville-Landsburg mine operated for 25 years producing 663,000 tons of clean coal before closing in 1961. John H. Morris was President of Palmer and a tireless promoter of coal during a period when coal furnaces were rapidly being replaced by home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity. This photo was likely taken in the early 1950s by the Renton News Record.
