The ground began to shake Roslyn’s business district just before 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, 1892. Residents thought it was an earthquake until they saw black smoke erupting from the No. 1 Mine in the canyon east of town.

Over the next three days, rescuers pulled 45 bodies from the mines.  Left behind - 29 widows and 91 orphans – the worst coal mining disaster in Washington State history.

Coal powered America’s railroads in the late 1800sand was the reason for Roslyn’s existence. After hearing reports of a rich coal vein in Upper Kittitas County, the Northern Pacific sent seven engineers (pictured above) to investigate. Their drill sites led to the establishment of several mines between Cle Elum and Ronald. (Top row left to right): I.E. Graham, Harry Cottie, Thomas Fleming, Archibald Patrick, William Thompson, Archie Anderson and William Anderson.

By August 1886, the No. 1 mine was well underway in the mouth of Smith Creek Canyon. Three months later, Northern Pacific’s Logan Bullitt platted Roslyn’s eleven-block town site below the mine.

By 1888, Roslyn’s 1200 citizens had built a thriving business district. When fire broke out June 22, a bucket brigade was formed, but three blocks were completely destroyed.  Although facing a $100,000 loss with little insurance, the town quickly rebuilt. A few years later, storefronts once again lined Pennsylvania Avenue pictured in the 1890 photo.

Advertisements from an 1892 Roslyn News show a diversified business district. When the Northwest Improvement Company (a subsidiary of Northern Pacific), tried to restrict the number of saloons in town, entrepreneurs built establishments outside city limits.

Roslyn’s population grew to 1,481 residents in 1890, most of them miners and their families. Some came from coal mining regions across the United States, which was the inspiration for Pennsylvania Avenues in both Roslyn and Cle Elum. Others came from Northern Europe – England, Wales, Germany, Scotland and Sweden. Later immigrations brought immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.

Earliest miners wore a canvas hat with a small oil can that produced an open flame for underground lighting. These open flames made early mining especially dangerous.

And then the unthinkable happened. Around 2:00 p.m. on that fateful day, a massive force ejected two boys, a donkey andcoal car out of the mine, followed by great clouds of black smoke and gas. A rescue party found the first badly burned bodies between the third and fourth levels. A later inquest ruled the explosion was caused by “deficient ventilation.”

It took three days to recover all 45 miners between the third and seventh levels. A mine blueprint marks the location where each was found.

  Heavy gases impeded recovery operations, but eventually all the recovered bodies were laid out at City Hall, which had been turned into a temporary morgue.

Funeral processions formed at the east end of Pennsylvania Ave. on their mournful march to the Roslyn City Cemetery at the top of Fifth Street. Residents paying their respects to their neighbor, friend, father, uncle or brother lined the way.

The Roslyn News published letters of sympathy and support from mayors across the Pacific Northwest and their citizens raised $7,000 for afflicted families. Roslyn residents raised another $2,000 and its Relief Committee received several inquiries about adopting orphan children. The Northwest Improvement Company eventually paid $1,000 death benefits to widows and $500 to families with a working aged son.

An Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakia and Kittitas Counties (Interstate Publishing Company, 1904.

Spawn of Coal Dust: History of Roslyn 1886-1955 (Roslyn, WA: 1955).

Roslyn News, May 13 and 20 1892 editions (available at the Roslyn Museum).