Earlier in the week, I did a post about the closure of Mine 10 in the Green River Gorge. Bill Kombol has been kind enough to share more background information about the closure, including a photo of the blast. Quoting from Bill:
On March 27, 1971, the last coal mine on the Green River Gorge was blasted shut with powerful explosives supplied by a division of Rocket Research based in Redmond. Coal miners, company officials, explosive experts, and the press gathered on the banks of the Green River as 900 pounds of the experimental dynamite, called Astrolite K, was placed inside the mine portal and on the mine bridge across the river. Coal was first extracted near the Green River in 1885 at the town of Franklin. Mining boomed until the early 1920s, and continued sporadically through the 1960s. The Franklin No. 10 mine was opened by Palmer Coking Coal Company in 1964 and produced over 66,000 tons of coal during its seven years of operation. In order to access the coal seam on the east side of the river, a timber-spanning bridge was built to the Franklin side. Al Ballestrasse of Enumclaw hauled in four 110-foot timbers which were put in place with a skyline. Bill Sharp, a mine carpenter from Issaquah built the bridge to the mine. However, tightening safety standards and a desire by Washington State Parks to preserve scenic areas along the Gorge hastened its closure. The demise of the Franklin No. 10 marked the end of underground coal mining in the Green River area, though surface mining continued. This photo by Vic Condiotty shows the explosion seconds after the detonation which shuttered the mine and destroyed the bridge. The event was even filmed by an NBC television crew for national broadcast on their “First Tuesday” news show. Two years later, State Parks made the first of a series of land purchases from Palmer Coking Coal to acquire the Hanging Gardens and Franklin Townsite Heritage and Recreation Areas.
Photo courtesy of Bill Kombol and Palmer Coking Coal
Thanks again Bill for sharing.
Comments