Natural Resource Industry - In It's Prime

What natural resource industry that began operations in Western Washington in the late 1800's is even bigger and employs more people today than ever?  Not coal, not timber, not fisheries.  What industry employs more people in Black Diamond and immediate vicinity than any other?  Still need hints?  Following is a photo of one of these businesses in the Puget Sound region taken in 1889.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, BOY78, William Boyd photographer, circa 1889

It's a rock quarry, of course, and the aggregates industry is big business today - rock, stone, sand, gravel, concrete.  All you have to do is drive the Maple Valley Highway between Enumclaw and Renton one morning and you'll see Black Diamond's Palmer Coking Coal and a slew of local competitor trucks on the road.  You'll see Cadman, Corliss, Stoneway, Miles, Northwest Aggregate and numerous independent truckers.  The glaciers were apparently good to us, leaving behind not just coal seams but enormous deposits of aggregate. 

As a state, Washington aggregate businesses generate an estimated $360 million in annual revenue.  We also rank as the #5 national producer of construction sand and gravel.  Per the numbers, each Washington State resident consumes on average 13.5 tons of aggregate per year.  Could that be why I feel like I'm getting heavier each year?  Road and building construction/maintenance are the biggest consumers of aggregate products but we also landscape our homes and manufacture bricks, tiles and other ancillary products.

Bigger than the coal industry too, nationally employing over 100,000 workers.  Big business and from the looks of it on the highway, highly competitive too.  Right Bill Kombol?

 

Comments

[Bill Kombol]

Funny you should ask. Yes, the aggregates industry (comprised of Sand and Gravel plus Crushed Stone) is an important component of the economy. I'll post a recent set of tables from the August 2017 Rock Products magazine on the contributions of the aggregate industry to the U.S. economy.

[Craig Goodwin]

Thanks Bill!