Black Diamond Miners Day

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Miners Day Sign on the way to the event

Join SKCGS at Black Diamond Miners Day!

We'll be there all day. Early birds can show up around 7 am to help us set up, or show up any time before 4 to help us greet people, answer their questions, or ask them about their family history. 


At 4 pm, as the event ends, we would welcome help to pack up  and clean up. 

Please write to Outreach@skcgs.org to volunteer. 


Chalk drawing from 2023 Miners Day

Black Diamond Area a Favorite Topic

Over the history of SKCGS Blog and our previous newsletter, the Black Diamond and Franklin Mine areas have been a great source for stories.  We are especially grateful for the volumes of information available at the Black Diamond Museum and Historical Society.

People who live in South King County, especially on the eastern side are familiar with the coal mining communities of Newcastle, Renton, and Black Diamond; some may even remember the names of Franklin, Cedar Mountain and other towns from long ago.

Franklin WA ~ Cemetery ~Abandoned Mining Town by vikisuzan, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)


Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 23, 1891
MaryLynn has had an interest in the mining operations at Franklin ever since she discovered the names of the 37 men who died in the mine fire of August 24, 1894.  That lead to other stories about Franklin including the 1891 import of Black miners from the Midwest.  Her research has been among newspapers on Chronicling America and the 1892 Washington State Territorial Census (available at Ancestry.com) and the R. L. Polk Seattle City Directory of 1892 (available at Digital Archives of Washington State).


Alexis Hacker Scholz looked for maps of coal mines and found that according to the Washington State Coal Mine Map Collection website, "About 1,100 individual maps representing about 230 mines comprise the Washington State coal mine map collection, which is held at the Washington Geological Survey. "

"A catalog, index, and user's guide for the collection has been published by the Washington Geological Survey:

https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/ger_ofr94-7_coal_mine_map_catalog.pdf

To find the Franklin area mines, open the above link and search on the word Franklin. If using a PC, press CTRL + F keys and type the word FRANKLIN and press Enter key.

Valorie found this which promises to get to the actual maps: 

https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/interactive-atlas-coal-mine-maps-washington


Oh, so many opportunities; so little time!


But, are you aware that SKCGS has a Black Heritage project in cooperation with the Black Diamond Historical Society? We are concentrating on the Black miners of Franklin, putting them on trees at Ancestry and Wikitree so they will be discovered by living descendants.

At present we have about 300 names of miners and their wives and children in a spreadsheet. If you are interested in researching a miner or two, let us know and we will make a copy of the spreadsheet available to you. The tree on Ancestry has some room to grow. Join the online group and help us research! https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Black-Heritage-Franklin


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If you are local, please write to Outreach@skcgs.org to tell us when you will join the fun we'll be having Saturday the 13th. 

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Thanks so much for your recent stories; keep them coming to M.Strickland@skcgs.org


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