Visitors to the Green River Gorge regularly marvel at its beauty and grandeur. While Native Americans have long relied on the Green River for its bounty of salmon plus other fish and game, most White settlers to the area arrived after Victor Tull and his expeditionary party discovered coal in 1882. Along the steep walls of the river-carved gorge, over 50 million years of geologic history are easily observed with most of the 18 coal seams in the Franklin series readily discernable.
Tull’s discovery led directly to the founding of a town by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company. Sensing opportunities from their nearby land holdings, the Oregon Improvement Company quickly followed suit and opened the Franklin mines. Both towns were served by the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad completed from Renton in 1885. That same year, shipments of coal were delivered by the competing mine operations to loading docks in Seattle.
While mining and coal processing in Black Diamond continued until 2001, Franklin’s prospects dimmed after two mines failed around 1915. By 1922, almost nothing was left of the town except relics and artifacts, some of which are still visible today.
With the 1915 building of the famed Green River Gorge Bridge that towers 155 feet above the rapids below, tourism in this area of scenic beauty began to take shape. Captain Dick Craine was one of the first to see its commercial potential. Between 1920 and 1924, Capt. Craine and his wife Bessie purchased 11 acres from Pacific Coast Company and built facilities consisting of a hotel, furnished cottages, a clubhouse, tents, and picnic grounds, in addition to selling picnic and campers’ supplies.
This image of two ladies seated on a log extending over the Green River was shot a few hundred feet downstream of the bridge. There were 20 images of the adventures experienced by three ladies and two men enjoying the pleasures of the Green River Gorge around Labor Day 1920. They camped at the Gorge on a trip down from Index. While their names remain a mystery the quality of the photos suggest they were accompanied by a professional photographer.
Today the Green River Gorge is as beautiful and enchanting as ever. Most of the facilities built by Dick Craine and subsequent owners have been torn down. The privately owned lodge building still stands near the east side of the bridge. Parking and access to both sides of the river at the bridge are available for a $5 contribution.
But visitors must be mindful of the attendant dangers presented by the cold and fast-rushing currents of the River as it passes through this narrow gorge. June water temperatures are often in the mid-50 degree range. Each year, the Green River Gorge typically claims one or two lives due to drowning, concussions, and hypothermia. The fatalities usually involve young people and excessive alcohol consumption is often a contributing factor.
This photo comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian and collector who purchased the 20-photo collection in 2013 from a Bellevue bookseller. Photo colorization was undertaken by Boomer Burnham, a Tahoma photography instructor doing business as http://www.boomersphotography.com/
