Black Gold in the Cowlitz Pass
Yakima prospectors discover rich anthracite deposits, fueling hopes for a new Pacific coast railroad.
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.
Dozens of men now carry about with them on their daily peregrinations through the city handsome specimens of anthracite coal, which they exhibit with an air that plainly says 'before you is a coal baron.' These specimens came from the Yakima coal fields in the Cowlitz pass and were brought down by Sam Vinson on his recent trip. The coal is as bright and clean as any anthracite ever mined and will, with the building of a railroad in that direction, make many of the claim owners rich. Yakima prospectors discovered the fields, and citizens of Yakima have filed on the greatest number of claims and are expending money and muscle in developing them. Mr. Vinson returned to the mines with men and supplies on Monday. The lines of the projected Yakima Pacific coast railroad pass right through the coal district and the Northern Pacific people give assurances that the road will be built.
“Dozens of men now carry about with them on their daily peregrinations through the city handsome specimens of anthracite coal.”
The dream of a railroad spur to tap Cascades coal was a common mid-territorial obsession, mirroring today’s local debates over transit infrastructure and natural resource management in Washington. While the coal boom didn't turn every prospector into a baron, the connection between extractive industry and rail development remains a core thread in the history of the region.
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