Descent into the Newcastle Mines

For a long time we have wished to visit the celebrated coal mine of the Seattle Coal Company, located at the town of Newcastle, some sixteen miles back of Seattle. On August 27th, we began the journey. We traveled by train to Lake Union, transferred to a steam scow, and were towed across Lake Washington to the company's wharf. From the top of an incline, a locomotive drew the cars nearly three miles to the mines. Mr. E. W. Lewis, the foreman, took us through the main mine. The veins run nearly due east and west, dipping north at an angle of 35 to 38 degrees. To enter the main mine, we donned suits of ducking and carried miners' lamps. We descended nearly forty feet perpendicularly, clinging to a rope, into the yawning chasm of the return air passage. The furnace—a fire kept to circulate pure air—was a perfect reminder of the infernal regions. We saw the men drilling, preparatory to blasting. The coal is quite hard, and the breasts are so steep the coal slides down by its own weight into the cars. Today, the town of Newcastle is the growth of the coal mine, containing about four hundred and fifty inhabitants. The miners do well there and have no cause of complaint.