Published by Diane Olson, Cory Olson, and the Black Diamond Historical Society, Black Diamond: Mining the Memories chronicles the rich, coal-fuelled history of a historic Washington company town situated in the shadow of the Cascade foothills. The book draws on extensive archival photographs, oral histories, and company records to detail the dangerous underground labor, multi-ethnic immigrant communities, and daily hardships of families who worked the rich seams for the Pacific Coast Company. Through these intimate vignettes, the text preserves the vanishing social fabric of a bustling industrial hub that once supplied coal across the entire Puget Sound. A keen insight drawn from the work is how company-owned mining towns functioned as isolated, corporate-feudal microcosms; by controlling everything from housing to currency, the coal company engineered a fragile social stability that ultimately fractured the moment laborers sought independent political and economic autonomy.

Black Diamond (Wash.) History, Coal mines and mining, Coal mines and mining Washington (State) Black Diamond History, History, Washington (State) Black Diamond

The town, and how it came to be The immigrants, and the town's early days The railroad, the town's link to the world The miners, and the Green River Field The company town, and its businesses The people, moms, dads, kids, and bachelors Community services, even bootlegging The company, the Union and the Strike Franklin, another company town Index to oral historians' contributions Index to illustrations and photographs Addendum to photographs Index

"An Oral History of life in a company town."Includes index

"An Oral History of life in a company town."Includes index