The Coal Beneath Our Feet
King County mines hit record production levels while new veins are uncovered near Lake Shore.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The production of coal at the Gilman mine in the year 1892 was 102,105 tons, being considerably more than in any previous year in the history of the mine. In 1891, the year of the strike, the output was 84,931 tons and in 1890 it was 76,000 tons. This, added to the production of the mines on the Columbia & Puget Sound road, makes the total output of the mines shipping to Seattle 434,775 tons. The Seattle Coal and Iron Company has resumed work on the Grand Ridge mine, three miles east of Gilman on the Lake Shore road, and has struck a good workable vein of coal. The company began prospecting on this vein before work was begun at Gilman, but after running a tunnel 300 feet only found three feet of coal and temporarily abandoned the workings. By going about five feet to one side of these workings it has discovered seven feet of good coal and will push the prospecting.
“The production of coal at the Gilman mine in the year 1892 was 102,105 tons, being considerably more than in any previous year in the history of the mine.”
Mining drove the early industrial economy of the Puget Sound region, shaping the layout of towns like Issaquah (formerly Gilman). Today, as the region shifts away from fossil fuels, the old tunnels are largely gone or reclaimed as parkland, serving as a reminder of the extractive boom that built the city.
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