The Unsung Frontier: A New Era for Black Diamond
Readers in the Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer get a rare, optimistic dispatch from the mining town of Black Diamond regarding its rapid development and natural beauty.
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.
Black Diamond, W. T., April 6. We have been slighted in not being noticed. We have awoke from our slumbers at last, to see the train arrive with the elite of Seattle, who were surprised to find such extensive preparations and development. The track is laid here and is now finished and in shape, and will, when done, be the finest piece of road in Washington Territory; and all we lack is the opening of the mines to make the finest and most picturesque region on the coast. Green River abounds with fish. In fact, this is the angler's paradise, for almost any time he can supply the Seattle market. From the depot can be seen Mount Rainier with its surrounding hills. Four miles up the river are the Bridal Veil Falls, pouring over a rocky ledge one hundred feet high and losing itself in the river below.
“We have awoke from our slumbers at last, to see the train arrive with the elite of Seattle, who were surprised to find such extensive preparations and development.”
While this 1886 letter highlights the optimism of coal town development, modern Black Diamond has transformed from a labor-heavy mining camp into a site of significant residential growth. The 'angler's paradise' described continues to balance ecological importance with the pressures of urban sprawl from nearby Seattle.
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