Visitors to the Black Diamond History Museum often marvel at the diorama scene of a working coal village. The miniature scale model features miner’s cottages alongside a coal mine tipple where a tiny coal car is pulled up from below, then dumps chunks of coal into a bunker in turn conveyed to a model railroad car. If you’ve never visited the museum, the diorama vastly exceeds the price of admission, which is free. They’re open on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays and the museum is located at 32627 Railroad Ave in old town.
Charles M. Corlett, pictured standing on the Fairfax Bridge in front of his 1935 Chevy is the man who built the model village so many museum visitors have enjoyed. He was born in 1915 in Blue Mound, Kansas. As a boy he watched his father blast coal from a surface pit after using a team of horses to strip off overlying top soil. When Charlie was a teenager, the family moved to Washington where his father went to work as a powderman for a roading building contractor. As the work was close to their home, Charles often joined his father on the job where he gained experience packing dynamite, carrying drill steel, and working as a flagger while his father set off explosive shots.
Charlie married Dorothy Jean (Franz) in June 1942. The couple met on Valentine’s Day two years earlier. In 1947, Charles found employment as a powderman building timber railroads for the White River Lumber Company in Enumclaw. His work often involved blasting huge tree stumps as well as drilling into solid rock, loading dynamite, and blasting hills and slopes for future rights-of-way.
For most of their married life, Charlie and Dorothy Corlett lived in a 1910 miner’s cottage they purchased from John and Audry Babchanik in1952. That same year they purchased the lot next door from Pacific Coast Coal Co. for $165. The home and extra lot are located on Highway 169, one block north of the Black Diamond ballpark where they raised three children, Betty (Corlett) Visser, Robert Corlett, and Charles Corlett.
Charlie Corlett retired in 1977 and soon joined other volunteers at the Black Diamond Museum. In early 1990, Charlie began working on his model village in the garage next to his home. Over two years, he handcrafted each item of the display showing what a working coal mining town looked like. When the display is operated visitors can experience the sight of a tiny rail car being hoisted from deep underground carrying several tablespoons of coal. While Charlie demonstrated his coal village to museum visitors, Dorothy shared her memories in the Black Diamond Historical Society newsletter in a series of articles titled, “Around Town.”
Charlie died in 2002 at age 86, while Dorothy survived him by nine years, passing in 2011 at age 91. This photo taken by Dorothy Corlett comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura who obtained it from their granddaughter, Dianne (Luke) Ridgway. Doug Burnham, a Tahoma school teacher, and owner of www.boomersphotography.com provided photo enhancements.
