A daring descent into the dark
Two women make history by descending 2,000 feet into the Oregon Coal Company mine at Coal Creek.
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.
Mrs. A. F. Burleigh, of this city, and Mrs. W. A. Burleigh, of Franklin, accompanied by T. B. Corey, superintendent of the Oregon Coal Company, visited the mine at Coal Creek on Monday. They descended to the fifth level, 2,000 feet below the surface, and have the distinction of being the first of their sex to go into the deepest mine in the state. Assistant Superintendent C. C. Anderson and a Post-Intelligencer representative were with the party and were filled with admiration at the coolness and intrepidity of the ladies.
“They descended to the fifth level, 2,000 feet below the surface.”
Coal Creek is now a lush, suburban nature trail park in Bellevue, a stark contrast to the grueling industrial abyss that once defined the landscape. The 'intrepidity' described by the paper reveals how heavily gendered the boundary between domestic life and the industrial frontier was at the time.
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