Black
Diamond
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Final Climb to Black Diamond Aerial View of Black Diamond Old Mine #11 Tailing Pile The Shovel points to John Henry
After passing Henrys Junction, the branch line headed up one final grade before entering the City of Black Diamond. Coal dolleys with "Welcome to Black Diamond" sit at every major entrance into the City. This Google Earth view of the Sub details the location of several points on the line. We have pictures of many of these landmarks. The orange line is the roadbed. This is the main office of Palmer Coking Coal Company. The company operated two mines in its heyday, Old Mine #11 and John Henry. While #11 has long since been mined out, John Henry is still active. The company is now heavily into the rock and landscape material business. Old Mine #11 was on this site, its tailing pile is still in place, covered by years of wild grass. Palmer Coking Coal now sells landscape materials. An old hydraulic shovel, used by Palmer Coking Coal to load coal on trucks after the railroad stopped servicing the area, sits out front of the office. The trucks drove about 2 miles north east to Ravensdale, where the coal was loaded on hoppers provided by the BN. The John Henry Mine (in distance) was located approximately 1.5 miles southeast of Old Mine #11. The only remaining railroad fixture at Palmer's yard is this concrete abutment for a railroad bridge that crossed the Auburn Black Diamond Highway. The line then proceeded about a 1/4 mile South to the depot. The Black Diamond Depot is the only remaining structure from the line first brought to town by the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad. It is now a historical museum, filled with memorabilia and artifacts about the town in its mining heydey. In the distance is a fully restored CPSRR wooden caboose. This museum is a must see if you are anywhere near the town. The curators have wonderful stories and interesting information about the rail line and the mining history of Black Diamond. This mine, located about a mile east of downtown Black Diamond, still operates today. According to the the US Geological Survey, 5 Billion tons of coal may still lurk under Black Diamond and the region. Due to a landslide at the mine in 2005, only 263,000 tons of coal were shipped in 2006.
Final Climb to Black Diamond
After passing Henrys Junction, the branch line headed up one final grade before entering the City of Black Diamond.
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