The Great Volunteer Fire Brigade Excursion to Black Diamond
A day of sports, baseball, and fraternal pride as Seattle's volunteer firefighters and their families took the train to Black Diamond for their third annual picnic.
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.
About 400 persons from Seattle and 100 from Newcastle and Renton participated in the Hook and Ladder excursion on Sunday. Two engines, two cabooses, four covered excursion cars, and three flat cars arranged with seats, and one refreshment car made up the train. A baseball match between the Athletic nine of Seattle and the Newcastle nine was played at Black Diamond, and resulted in a draw. The train, after the excursionists had lunched at Black Diamond, continued on to the Franklin mines, where many of the excursionists enjoyed themselves for an hour or two. The train returned to Seattle at 9 p.m. The net proceeds will amount to about $150, which will replenish the Hook and Ladder treasury.
“The train, after the excursionists had lunched at Black Diamond, continued on to the Franklin mines, where many of the excursionists enjoyed themselves for an hour or two.”
In the 1880s, volunteer fire companies were the bedrock of civic life and social standing in growing towns like Seattle, serving as both emergency services and social clubs. Today's professional Seattle Fire Department retains that deep community identity, though the days of funding local department equipment through company-sponsored train excursions to coal mining camps have long since passed.
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