Last week’s column featured Jim Thompson, then 24 years old at the bottom of the Rogers No. 3 mine just months after he accepted a dare and became a coal miner. In contrast, Tony Basselli and Bud Simmons worked in local coal mines for most of their respective lives. In this photo from 1974, Basselli, left and Simmons, right are seen riding a coal car to the surface just as it emerges from the incline slope and breaks to the surface. Basselli was the mine’s fire boss who examined mine workings for explosive gas before the coal miners were allowed to go underground. Simmons was the mine superintendent. Basselli was 62 and Simmons 57, but each could work like men half their age.
This was the third portal opening into the Rogers seam and located in Ravensdale on the Kent-Kangley Road about one mile west of Four Corners. The first opening called Rogers No. 1 was situated one mile north where the Summit-Landsburg Road splits into upper and lower branches both leading to Landsburg Road S.E. and bridge over the Cedar River. A second entryway known as Rogers No. 2 was sunk the following year. In this area originally known as Danville, the coal seams stood at steep angles, sometimes nearly vertical. These conditions presented its owner, Palmer Coking Coal Company with unique mining challenges. When Rogers No. 3 closed in December 1975, its passing marked the final chapter of underground coal mining in Washington State.
Tony Basselli was born in 1912 in the east Pierce County coal mining town of Melmont. For 44 years he worked as a coal miner, the last 13 of which for Palmer Coking Coal as their fire boss. He also operated his one-man mine, the Carbonado Coal Company before federal regulations imposed by the Mine Safety & Health Administration forced Basselli to shut down. The agency required Basselli, among other things, to install a telephone system from outside the mine to the working face a couple hundred feet inside. Tony reminded the inspector, “I’m the only person working in the mine. Who would I talk to on the telephone?” But his logic fell on deaf ears. He died in 2003 at age 90.
Alva “Bud” Simmons was born in Butte, Montana in 1917, but grew up in Black Diamond. Bud started his mining career at the New Black Diamond Mine on the Renton-Maple Valley Highway in 1936, shortly after graduation from high school. Seven years later he received his 2nd Class paper to examine mines and by 1947 became a 1st Class examiner. Simmons was named foreman of the adjacent Landsburg Mine in 1953 and was appointed Superintendent of all Palmer mines in 1958. After overseeing the successful closure of the Rogers No. 3 mine, Simmons continued in several surface mining roles for Palmer. In March 1981, Simmons retired from a job back on the picking table, the same entry-level job he first worked 45 years earlier. Bud Simmons died in 2006 at age 89.
