Tag: Palmer Coking Coal

Categories
Uncategorized

Spring Fever, Cedar River Boat Racing, & Bob Morris

Bill Kombol, June 14, 1975 at the start of the annual Cedar River Boat Race. The plastic wrapped around my torso helped keep water out of our boat.

The spring quarter of college, 1975, was upon me. I needed one more credit to graduate.  A new life was opening after 17 years of schooling. I had no interest in grad school, getting a job, or even thinking about one.  My ambition was to embrace a newfound freedom and focus on learning outside the classroom. My immediate goal was to live the good life.  Let’s call it spring fever with one foot in and one foot out.

That spring brightened my life in several ways.  Being discharged from the night shift, picking table job at the coal mine opened up 45 hours each week.  I supercharged my liberation by only scheduling classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, eliminating two travel days between Enumclaw and Seattle.  After being laid off, I applied for unemployment, but the $93 weekly checks wouldn’t start until school ended.

In addition to a new appreciation for live drama detailed in a previous essay, “My Living Theater,” I took up tennis for an easy credit (only three P.E. credits counted toward a degree, and two were in the bag). Two finance classes and one Home Ec rounded out my schedule.

My Spring Quarter, 1975 schedule.

I also aimed to improve my vocabulary by studying the dozens of handwritten pages gifted to me the prior summer by Uncle Evan Morris.  With plenty of extra time plus proficiency on my Olympia portable typewriter, I typed nearly 2,000-word definitions, plus pithy aphorisms and quotations from the notebook Evan kept by his side at Washington State during the early years of World War II.   Whenever he came across an unfamiliar word or catchy phrase, he wrote it down and later looked up and copied a short dictionary definition.  I set forth to assimilate all of them.

I’d been interested in healthy eating, so took a class in nutrition.  During my first years of college, with little awareness of the food sciences, I experimented with different diets.  After convincing myself milk was the closest thing to a perfect food, over four days straight I drank nothing but, until a constipated intestinal system convinced me otherwise.  Next, I dined only on eggs with similarly baleful consequences.  For the most part, I ate well enough, but needed a better understanding of dietetics.

Collaterally, a class in the Home Economics department meant a preponderance of students would be girls.  I hadn’t had a girlfriend during college.  And with so much extra time, I wasn’t averse to finding one.  I didn’t!

The two-credit Home Econ class was right up my alley.  Judging by my notes, I spent an inordinate time focused on all aspects of food – digestion, carbs, fats, proteins, calories, vitamins, minerals, additives, and metabolism.  I became fixated on food quality and ordered all manner of free pamphlets and information from the Department of Agriculture.

One assignment was to record everything we ate for two consecutive days.  Looking back on my food intake for May 13 and 14, 1975, it’s surprisingly similar to my eating habits five decades later – a large breakfast of fruits and cereals, then a light or skipped lunch, concluding with a hearty assortment of meats and vegetables for dinner.  And even back then, I always rewarded myself with dessert.

Cedar River Boat Racing

Outside the classroom, that spring steadily became dominated by boat racing on the Cedar River.  My cousin Bob Morris, whom I’d worked with at the mine for the past nine months, needed a first mate and asked me to join him.

The narrow boats he and others raced looked like two-man canoes on steroids.  I was planted upfront, wielding a double-bladed paddle and scouting downstream waters, while Bob faced backward and pulled oars from a sliding seat that fully engaged his arms and legs in propulsion.

Bill Kombol in front, with paddle, and Bob Morris in back, with oars, Cedar River Boat Race, June 14, 1975.

I chose the route and barked orders back to Bob, “Left – right – steady – pull hard.”  Bob knew the river well and taught me the best lanes. He’d raced the two prior years and practically knew it by heart.  His former partner, Jim Thompson joined a new boat with Jim Bain, so Bob asked me to sign on as a rookie.  I had lots to learn.

The Cedar River Boat Race was the biggest event of the annual Maple Valley Days celebration.  It’s always held on the second Saturday in June.  This year it celebrates its 75th anniversary, marking a milestone that began with its 25th commemoration in 1975.

The festivities’ origins centered around a group of Maple Valley men who built flat-bottom boats and organized a race to determine which team could post the fastest time navigating the wild Cedar River from the Landsburg Bridge to Cedar Grove.  The race was conducted using staggered starts, as many currents were only wide enough for one boat to pass at a time.

This photo is from a different stretch of river and appeared in the Voice of the Valley the following week.  The caption was wrong – Bob and I finished second.  Our boat was sponsored by TRM Wood Products, which is still located at Four Corners.

Spring flows present the perfect challenge. Successful racers need to avoid boulders, log jams, and cross-currents while choosing the fastest navigable waters. Getting caught in the wrong eddy or whirlpool might flip your boat sideways or even capsize it.  Hidden snags beneath the water’s surface are an ever-present danger.  Choosing the fastest rapid is tricky and fraught with error.

Two or three days each week, Bob and I practiced by running the river.  Bob was still working day shift, so our trial runs were in the late afternoon.  Bob kept his boat in the mine office basement at Palmer Coking Coal.  During our spare time, we patched cracks and leaks with fiberglass and applied fresh varnish for a frictionless bottom.

The boat was transported atop a homemade pickup rack.  Bob’s girlfriend, Rafaela Wright rode between us to the Landsburg Bridge.  After setting sail, Rafaela drove to the Cedar Grove finish line to pick us up. After practice, we’d have dinner in their tiny travel trailer off Maxwell Road or at the Four Corner’s E-Z Eatin’ café. Rafaela was one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever known.

The E-Z Eatin’ Cafe at Four Corners, though at the time of this 1973 photo it was called Grace & Eddy’s.

The 11-mile route typically took 70 to 90 minutes to navigate.  It all depended on how much water Seattle Public Utilities released from Chester Morse Lake to fill their Lake Young reservoir.  As water flows changed, so did currents and channels.  Every river day was different.  Last week’s log jam might be this week’s causeway.  If the river were three inches lower, a boulder we previously passed over smoothly might slow us down or hang us up.

Maple Valley’s newspaper, Voice of the Valley provided comprehensive coverage of the race and M.V. Days activities. This photo was taken during the 1976 race.

Race day coincided with Maple Valley’s festival, which included a parade, country fair, and community picnic.  That year’s event was slated for June 14, the same day as U.W. commencement ceremonies.  I skipped graduation. My diploma arrived in the mail four months later.  By then, I was loafing in Lincoln City and wouldn’t see the signed parchment for another month.  It didn’t really interest me – I’d left that world behind.

The race started at 2 p.m., two hours after the women contested a shortened course.  Many families living along the Cedar River threw parties each year to coincide with Maple Valley Days.  As we paddled downstream, cheers arose from the shore as intoxicated revelers raised beers and drinks in salute.

Crowds gathered beneath the old RR trestle across the Cedar River (near SR 169) to watch the boats race by.  One boat is visible. – June 14, 1975.

The 1975 race featured 13 teams. Only nine of the 13 boats crossed the finish line.  The previous year’s winners, Bill Niord and Bill Furlong, broke an oar and pulled out to protect their craft.  The Last Chance, manned by Terry Morris and Ted Turpin, crashed into a rock and sank under the Maple Valley Bridge.  As they made their way safely to shore, chunks of the boat and gear floated haphazardly downstream.

For the 14th time in the past 15 years, brothers Bob and Ben Soushek captured the title.  Bob and I finished second with an elapsed time of 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 12 seconds, a full three minutes behind the perennial winners.  The trophy presentation was at Royal Arch Park at 5 p.m.

Bob Morris, left, and Bill Kombol, right, accept their trophies after the 1976 race.

I raced the following year with Bob, and in 1976, we placed third with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 21 seconds.  Two weeks later, I fell 25 feet from a Douglas fir tree in front of my parents’ Lake Sawyer cabin while trimming branches.  I landed in Valley General Hospital for eight days with compressed vertebrae and a digestive tract that shut down.

I spent the Bicentennial Fourth of July watching televised coverage of the historic celebration from a hospital bed.  I turned 23 the next day.  My back would never be the same.  I gave up Cedar River boat racing, but not my friendship with Bob.

Bob Morris

If I were to name the most important role models in my life, Bob Morris would undoubtedly be in the mix.  Bob was four years and four days my senior.  I looked up to him.  We worked together for nearly a year at the mine.  During slow nights when no coal was being pulled for me to process, I’d wander down to the hoist room when Bob was working the night shift. During dinner break, we often listened to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell, and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War came to an end.  After graduating from Tahoma in 1967, Bob worked for several months before enlisting in the Marines in January 1968.  He deliberately chose the toughest corps because that’s the kind of guy Bob was and has always been.  After his San Diego boot camp, Bob shipped out to Vietnam in April 1968.

He ended up about 30 miles south of Da Nang.  During the first three months, he was a grunt, but soon rose to corporal and became the platoon radioman, always close to the unit’s lieutenant.  He was later promoted to company radioman and assigned to the captain.  Though generally out of harm’s way, a number of times Bob’s company found themselves under fire.  One battle found them in extreme danger, probably the closest he came to death.

At the end of a 13-month tour of duty, Bob returned to the U.S. in June 1969, just as anti-Vietnam War demonstrations peaked.  Anyone who lived through those days knows that returning servicemen were not treated with respect.

While working at the mine or later during our boat racing days, I frequently spoke with Bob about the war.  When it came to an end, I asked him how he felt.  To Bob, the fall of Saigon didn’t mean much.  He’d served his country, done his job, and for him, “The war was in the rearview mirror.”  To this day, Bob meets annually with his Marine brothers.  There is much to admire about Bob Morris.

Bob Morris, left, and Bill Kombol right during their lunch break, January 1976.  The photo was take in Enumclaw when the two were helping Palmer Coking Coal Co. move Stergion Cement’s storage bins to PCC’s mine yard in Black Diamond.

Three years later, in August 1978, I rejoined Palmer Coking Coal, once again.  I was back at the picking table, the lowest job at the mine.  I worked beside Bob, who taught me most of what I learned about operating equipment, running the mine yard, and getting jobs done.

I liked working under Bob.  He was a good teacher and a practiced taskmaster who imposed a tough workload not only on others but on himself.  Bob was no slouch and expected the same from those who worked with him.  Yet, he usually found ways to make dull tasks competitively fun.

Though I was neither as strong as Bob nor as knowledgeable, I thrived under his exacting foremanship.  He was one of the best teachers a future Manager of the company could have. Seven years later, Bob asked me to be the best man at his July 1985 wedding to Jill Kranz.  For the past six years, I’d worked side-by-side with Jill as she was Palmer’s bookkeeper and all-around office gal.

Bob Morris, left, and Bill Kombol, right, at a retirement party for fellow coal miners, July 21, 1981.

In addition to boat racing, I began writing poetry.  It provided a release from the blue-book blues of college midterms and finals.  I also accepted an invitation from another older cousin, Dave Falk, for a 500-mile summer bicycle ride from Lincoln City north along the Oregon and Washington coasts to Canada.  A few weeks after the boat race, I purchased a 10-speed Motobecane touring bike and began preparations on the backcountry roads between Enumclaw and Selleck for our big ride.

Epilogue

The day I heard news of Saigon’s impending fall, I wrote this poem.  It was an early effort at verse and not particularly good.  But somehow it seemed a fitting way to end this essay about spring fever, Cedar River boat racing, and how Bob Morris helped shape my life.

One Too Many Times – 4-29-1975

The last two young Americans have perished in the war
They’ve lost their lives for nothing, like fifty-six thousand before.
My heart goes out to all the dead and oh so many more.
But then, one too many times is not enough.

I hate to do it to you, but then how can we forget
You’ve almost got to brood and cry about these past events
I hate the war and every minute spent in useless argument
But, one too many times is not enough.

Sometimes I dream of the wonderful creations in this world
Of green plants flowing to the stars in some fantastic mural.
And standing in the middle, uncorrupted boys and girls
I hope, one too many times was quite enough. – WJK

The original poem in pencil from my notebook of poetry.
Categories
Uncategorized

March Fourth With Uncle Joe

A sketch drawing of Joe Silvestri, 1940.

I was blessed with eight fine aunts and uncles. There were no divorces among them.  Collectively the eight couples logged 430 years of marriage.  I was particularly fond of uncles, as a boy often is.  They bore names that belong to the Greatest Generation: Jack, Frank, Charlie, Bernell, Chester, Joe, George, and Evan.  Each influenced my life for the better.  My last surviving uncle, Joe Silvestri died at age 99 three months shy of his 100th birthday.

Like all of them, Joe had a firm handshake that greeted nephews upon arrival at any holiday event or family gathering.  Each had a different banter but Joe’s was unique – inquiring but posed by a man with something to say.  A diehard Roosevelt Democrat, Joe was usually the first to bring up politics, but just as quick to suggest a game of penny-ante poker.  “Just a little fun,” he’d say.  As the youngest nephew, what a thrill it was to play poker with older cousins and uncles on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve poker in the Silvestri basement. Clockwise from left: Barry Kombol, Bill Kombol, Gerry Beck, Lanny Silvestri, Uncle Joe, Dan Silvestri 1977.

In conversation, Uncle Joe often went one step beyond – usually to the supernatural, perhaps faith healing, copper bracelets, or fire walking.  He marveled at their possibilities and curative powers but when pressed added a disclaimer that much is still unknown. He talked politics with a passion, but politely and with a willingness to listen to differing points of view.  Joe was also that uncle with an 8-millimeter motion picture camera – complete with 500-watt lights blinding nephews and nieces who hurtled about the living room concealing our eyes from the glare.

In high school, Joe’s oldest son, Dan offered me a summer job selling popsicles from a 3-wheeled Cushman scooter.  The business was operated from the basement of Uncle Joe and Aunt Nadine’s home on Kent’s East Hill.  Each evening we counted our coins and bills.  Joe often stood watch over the assemblage.  Our tills were expected to match the confectionaries sold. Still, most drivers were short, through neglect or more often petty pilferage.  Mine always balanced perfectly.  For decades Joe bragged that ‘nephew-Bill’ as he called me, was their best Popsicle salesman and never short on his till.  Uncle Joe was a mentor who made me feel proud.

L-R: Joe, Nadine, Cheryl, Dan, and Lanny at Cheryl’s wedding to Gerry Beck, Sept. 14, 1974.

Joe worked much of his life as a highway engineer for the Washington Dept. of Transportation.  He began work on the I-90 project over Snoqualmie Pass in the 1950s.  My Dad and his brothers-in-law needled him about the construction job that never ended.  Uncle Joe graciously accepted their ribbing, offering a spirited defense with a knowing laugh.

One by one, my father and uncles passed away until only Joe remained.   He alone was left to care for the three Kombol sisters, his wife, Nadine, plus sisters-in-law, Dana and Nola, becoming their chauffeur and escort at family functions, marriages, and funerals.  When two more aunts passed on, only Joe and Nadine remained from that generation.  They celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on a delightful Sunday afternoon joined by family and friends.

Joe’s work ethic befit the greatest generation he exemplified.  He served his family in life and death.  When Aunt Dana Zaputil died in 2012, family members were invited to choose items of remembrance from her home. We strolled through her Fauntleroy home telling stories, recalling good times, and singling out keepsakes. It was a hot summer day with temperatures stretching into the 90s and most kept to the air-conditioned indoors.

Someone asked, “Where’s Uncle Joe?”  Up on the rooftop, my 92-year-old uncle stood pressure-washing accumulated moss and debris to prepare his late sister-in-law’s home for sale.  It took the urging of two nephews and a son to convince him to come down the ladder and off the roof.  He did so only with a promise that one of us would finish the job.

Two years before his death, Joe, age 97, and Nadine showed up at Palmer Coking Coal to purchase a mixed load of sand and gravel.  I walked out to say hello as the loader dumped sand and 7/8” washed gravel into the bed of his small Ford pickup.  After the usual greetings and small talk, I inquired what he was doing with the mix, because it’s a specialty product.  Well, Joe explained, he planned to pour a slab that afternoon so would be hand shoveling the sand, gravel, and powdered cement into his concrete mixer back home.  I about fell over.

After knowing Joe for all of my sixty-plus years, he still managed to surprise me.  At their 75th wedding anniversary, Joe pulled out a harmonica and played a suite of songs to the large gathering of admiring relatives and well-wishers.  I had no idea he even played harmonica!

And just a week before his 99th birthday, Joe drove to my office with a worn suitcase of old photos and keepsake belonging to his stepdad.  Since I write a history column for the local newspaper, Joe gave me the opportunity to scan the contents in the event there was a story to tell. Indeed there was and I wrote it.

Joe & Nadine at their 75th wedding anniversary, Aug. 2018.

The Silvestri family’s proud Italian heritage.

Knowing the end was approaching, Joe hand-wrote his family’s history in a spiral-bound notebook.  His father, Carlo Silvestri grew up in the Emilia-Romagna province of Italy just 12 miles across the Secchia River from the home of his future bride, Clotilde Cavecchi.  They didn’t know each other.  Carlo found work in France eventually joining that country’s attempt to build the Panama Canal.  After the French effort failed, Carlo ventured to Washington where he became acquainted with Annibale Cavecchi whose sister, Clotilde worked as a housemaid in Marseille.

Carlo joined Annibale who was laboring on a farm in the Wabash-Krain area of Enumclaw. But he exchanged letters and photos with his sister, Clotilde, in the days before online dating sites. An arrangement was settled by which Clotilde moved to America and married the farmhand her brother had recommended.  Three decades later, Clotilde acquired that 40-acre farm where her brother and late husband had first found employment. Some of the land is still owned by Silvestri family members.

After the early years, Carlo and Clotilde moved to Black Diamond where Carlo worked as a self-employed lumberman hand splitting 2” x 8” wooden planks called lagging that were used in the coal mines.  He also raised cows, both dairy and beef, selling his meat in the Italian areas of Renton. Clotilde bore a succession of children, Nello, Ricco, Philomena, Fredericco, and Tomosco whose American names became Nick, Rick, Pink, Fred, and Tom.  They named their sixth child Giuseppe, Italian for Joseph.  Following baptism and confirmation, Uncle Joe added Anthony as his middle name.

During Prohibition Carlo joined a bootlegging ring, attending their still located east of Ravensdale. Clotilde’s first cousin, Tullio Cavecchi, and partner Sisto Luccolini sold the Italian brandy called grappa in Seattle.  But Carlo alone was nabbed in a raid and sentenced to a six-month term on a work farm.   Joe’s folks always referred to that farm as the ‘stockade.’  Still, Carlo earned enough money to buy a cow that he named Stocada, an Italian play on words.  Joe milked that cow for years.  Sadly, his father, Carlo died a few years later when Joe was only nine.

In time his widowed wife, Clotilde moved with her remaining children to Kangley where she married Frank Valerio, himself a widower. Joe was equally proud of his stepfather whose dusty suitcase came into Joe’s possession upon his death.  He spoke proudly of Valerio’s life as an Italian immigrant to Ravensdale, then Kangley where he worked as a coal miner.  Kangley is where Joe first met the children of Tony and Lulu Kombol, whose youngest daughter, Nadine he would one day marry.

Joe and Nadine in Kangley, 1942. Behind them is the Kangley Tavern, later operated for decades by Truman Nelson.

Joe delighted in his Italian heritage visiting the old country several times.  For decades he was a fixture in the Black Diamond chapter of the Sons of Italy.  Late in life, Joe paid tribute to the Italian dairy farmers who were active in the Enumclaw area and highlighted their work ethic.  Those family names were Ballestrasse, Capponi, Condotta, Fantello, Giglioni, Malatesta, Marietta, Primton, and Rocca.

A few years back wanting to learn more about his ancestry, Joe took one of the popular DNA tests.  It turns out my proud Italian Uncle Joe was actually 50% French.  Though he groused about the results, Joe chuckled ironically at his genetic heritage.

Joseph Antony Silvestri was born March 4, 1920, in Black Diamond.  Like many of his generation, he joined the Army during World War II. While Joe was stationed in South Carolina,his fiancé Nadine Kombol drove with her mother, Lulu across the country, where Joe and Nadine were joined in marriage on August 21, 1943.

L-R: Lanny, Joe, Dan, Nadine, and Cheryl Silvestri, 1953.

Together they raised three children: Danny, Lanny, and Cheryl.  His oldest son, Dan preceded his parents in death on the last day of June 2018.  Nadine passed away peacefully at their family home on Sept. 25, 2019.  Joe joined her just over two months later on Dec. 12th.  They are buried together in the Enumclaw cemetery right next to my parents, Jack and Pauline Kombol.

All my aunts and uncles are gone and so is most of the generation who guided me growing up.  Joe and Nadine were my last.  I miss them each dearly . . . especially Uncle Joe.

Nadine (Kombol) and Joe Silvestri in Wilmington, South Carolina on their wedding day, Aug. 21, 1943.

 

Categories
Musings

Abraham, Martin and PCC

In the fall of 1968, Dion released a song that touched my soul.  About the same time, I started working Saturdays at a job that defined my life.  I still work there until March 2022.  This is the story of the song, that job, and a 15-year-old boy.

The Beatles’ single “Hey Jude” backed by “Revolution” dominated the airwaves. The Detroit Tigers, my favorite baseball team would soon play in the World Series. A presidential election heated up following a deadly political year culminating in riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

Kris Galvin and I were freshly minted sophomores. Each day after school we played a board game called Mr. President. Two players strategized their way to victory by assembling a majority of votes in the Electoral College.  In the real election, Nixon did just that, defeating Hubert Humphrey while George Wallace carried five states.

In late September, I began a new job at Palmer Coking Coal as their Saturday boy.  After a day of training, I was in charge of the Black Diamond office from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., though typically worked longer.  I didn’t yet drive so Dad dropped me off each morning, picking me up a little after noon.

 

The mine office of Palmer Coking Coal on Highway 169, about the time I started working there.

The work consisted of sacking coal, answering phones, and operating a scale—but mostly selling nut and stoker coal to old guys driving pickup trucks.  It was quite a thrill to command an office, poke about in drawers, make change, and run the store.  I earned $1.00 per hour, paid with money drawn from the cash drawer and replaced with a handwritten receipt.

Dad signed for my wages and I’d take a $5 bill out of the drawer. Three years later when I left this job, I was earning $2 per hour. (I found this old receipt 40 years later in a box in the attic at the same mine office where I first started).

It wasn’t always busy so after reading the P-I, I tuned the radio to KJR-95.  My youth’s mind remembers where and what I was doing when certain songs played.  That October, I heard Dion DiMucci sing a gentle folk tribute to the assassinated heroes, “Abraham, Martin and John.”  The final lyrics delivered a stanza for Bobby Kennedy.

“Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby

Can you tell me where he’s gone?

I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill

With Abraham, Martin and John.” – Dick Holler

Dion’s single next to Bill Kombol on his first day of high school, Sept. 3, 1968.

I was a fervent reader of newspapers and convinced Mom to buy a subscription to U.S. News & World Report.  On the last day of March 1968, Lyndon Johnson announced he wouldn’t seek re-election to the presidency.  Martin Luther King was shot dead in Memphis four days later.

On June 6th, the Kombol family checked into the Hotel Austria on Fleischmarkt Street in Vienna.  The tragic news of Robert Kennedy’s assassination splashed across the front pages of every paper on the newsstand.  The photo of 17-year-old, Juan Romero cradling the head of a fallen senator in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel has haunted me ever since.  An old Austrian woman draped in a black shawl stood in the lobby hissing, practically spitting the words out, “Johnson, Johnson!”

 Kombol family in Austria, L-R: Jeanmarie, Pauline, Bill, Barry, Dana. June 1968.

Dion’s song was poignant and melancholy.  It tugged at my heart while coaxing a tear.  Soon the three-minute radio broadcast was over.  It might be hours until it played.  I wanted to hear it time and again.

Work ended and I was home in the afternoon.  I usually fixed tomato soup and cheese-toast for lunch then listened to the Huskies on the radio.  Only the rarest of U.W. football games were broadcast on television.  Later friends and I might play a game of touch football at the Kibler school playground.  Time passes quickly in adolescence and evening came soon enough.  Dinner was promptly at 6 p.m.  Mom always made hamburgers on Saturday night.

While the song accompanied my introduction to the first months of high school, “Abraham, Martin and John,” made a cameo appearance shortly after graduation.  A collage by Tom Clay joined “What the World Needs Now Is Love” to live broadcasts of the assassinations introduced by snippets from Dion’s hit.  That summer of 1971, I worked long hours selling popsicles east of Kent and often drove home listening to the six-minute spoken word hymn.

I never really left Palmer Coking Coal.  During college, I spent summers as a laborer.  I worked the afternoon shift at the Rogers No. 3 my senior year.  It closed a few months later, the last underground coal mine in Washington.  After graduating, I joined Palmer for employment stints of two and three months when no other adventure called.

On of my  stints working for Palmer involved relocating parts of the Stergion cement plant in Enumclaw to Black Diamond  With money made from those three months, I traveled to Hawaii with my high school buddy, Wayne Podolak, Jan. 1976.

In August 1978, I began full-time employment at PCC, back on the picking table.  A decade of college, loafing, banking, odd jobs, and traveling landed me back where I’d begun 10 years earlier.  Four years later, I was appointed Manager of the company.  The following summer we celebrated Palmer Coking Coal’s 50th anniversary. I was 29-years-old.

In early 1979, I was brought into the office to learn how to run the business. I sat across my uncle Charlie Falk who snapped this picture.  I continued to sit at the same desk for the next 44 years, Summer 1979.

It’s now 40 years down the road.  I’ll soon be leaving full-time employment at PCC.  It’s where I’ve spent all but two years of my working career.  Of these things I’m certain––this job and that tune will forever remain in my heart, intertwined in a romantic ballad where the only constant is change.

I look back with nostalgia yet forward in anticipation.  How these next adventures unfold will be the continuing story of my life.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Post Script: Here’s the short story of Dion’s life and the song that changed mine.  Dion DiMucci was born in 1939 to Italian-American parents in the Bronx.  Teaming with friends from Belmont Avenue, Dion and the Belmonts scored their first hit in 1958 with “I Wonder Why.”

While on the 1959 winter concert tour with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper; the bus’s heating system gave out so Holly charted a plane to their next venue.  Dion balked at paying $36, his share for the flight because it was the rent amount his parents struggled to pay each month.  The plane crashed, killing all on board.

Dion split from the Belmonts in 1960, pursuing a solo career with hits like “Run-Around Sue” and “Donna.”  After continually humming Dion’s rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star,” from the Disney movie Pinocchio, Brian Wilson composed the Beach Boy’s ballad, “Surfer Girl,” in 1963   It was his very first composition.

Dion Now & Then is how I titled my Dion tribute CD compilation.

Dion was one of only two rock artists to appear on the cover of the Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Bob Dylan was the other.  With changing tastes from the British Invasion and a growing heroin addiction, Dion started recording blues numbers in the mid-1960s.  His records failed to sell so he lost his contract.

In April 1968, Dion experienced a powerful religious awakening.  He gave up heroin and his label agreed to re-sign him if he’d record “Abraham, Martin and John.”  The single was released that August, reaching #4 on the charts in October.  It was written by Dick Holler, composer of the Royal Guardsman’s novelty hit, “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.”

In the 1980s, Dion became a born-again Christian, releasing five albums highlighting his evangelical convictions.  In June 2020 at age 81, Dion released his most recent album, “Blues with Friends” featuring a range of artists including Jeff Beck, John Hammond, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springsteen.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Coda: On a warm summer evening in the early 1960s, Billy Kombol stood at the door of the open-air dance pavilion at Barrett’s Lake Retreat resort, mesmerized by the sight of teenagers dancing to the jukebox sounds of Dion and the Belmonts.

Categories
History

Working at a Coal Mine

The last coal miners of Rogers #3 mine
LR156b- The morning and afternoon shifts of coal miners in the front of the washhouse of the last underground coal mine in the State of Washington: the Rogers #3 Mine located at 26222 S.E. Kent-Kangley Road in Ravensdale. Front Row (L to R): Joe Ozbolt (kneeling), James Bo Williams, John Costanich (kneeling), Tony Basselli, Bill McLoughry. Back Row: Bob Morris, Bill Kombol, Barry Kombol, George Savicke, Bud Simmons, Roy Darby, John Streepy. Photo by Bob Morris, 1975.

My senior year of college was as different as night and day.  It wasn’t my original plan. By day, I inhabited the rarified air of life at a university where young men and women, often preening boys and girls, proffered great thoughts fueled by a steady diet of pot and booze.  At night, I worked in a coal mine with gray-haired men at jobs they’d performed their entire lives.

I was bemused by the attitudes and mindsets of the two cultures.  For me, it was the best and worst of times – the most wonderful and dreadful of any span of my then young life.  I was fully exhilarated and completely exhausted – a caterpillar in search of a butterfly to escape a cocoon of his own making.  For years I’ve struggled to reconcile the feelings and emotions within those discordant worlds I simultaneously ingested.

I’d grown increasingly bored with college phonies fretting over which grad school to attend.  I was steadily drawn to the stoic lives of coal miners.  My fellow undergrads bemoaned petty stresses of their own making.  Each day the miners completed the tasks set before them.  The grad school gang imagined chic careers with grand salaries.  The coal miners were content with life and their position in it.

In early September 1974, I prepared to return for my last year of college.  Over three summers past, I worked for Palmer Coking Coal, a family-owned company.  My jobs were common laboring at the Black Diamond yard and Rogers #3 mine.  That mine was a succession of Rogers #1 and #2, started in 1958 and 1959 respectively.  Located in Ravensdale, Rogers #3 was slated to close in less than a year.  It would be the last underground coal mine in the State of Washington.

End of the shift
That’s me at shift’s end and covered with coal dust on one of my rare day shifts. The Rogers #3 hoist room and mine tipple are up the hill behind me.  Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1975

My uncle, Jack Morris was President of Palmer.  He was navigating the company’s exit from the coal business, as gracefully as possible.  It was a tough time for the firm.  Jack was drinking heavily, and Palmer’s fortunes were not promising.  There were sharp disagreements between three uncles, Jack, Evan Morris, and Charlie Falk, who collectively led the firm.  I was thankfully unaware of building tensions and unresolved rivalries. I just turned 21.  Little did I know that leadership of this company would one day fall to me.

Evan Morris, Sr. on the platform beside the portal entrance into the Rogers #3 mine.  The sloped tunnel descended 800 feet underground.  December 1974.

Federal coal inspectors were bearing down on small mines like Palmer’s.  Our operation didn’t fit the template for a subsurface coal mine.  The Rogers coal seam stood nearly vertical, while most coal mines operate on horizontal planes, the way sedimentary formations containing coal seams are naturally deposited.  The plate tectonic which uplifted the Cascade Mountains altered the local Ravensdale geology to a rare condition – a vein of coal tilted to more than 80º.  Underground mine regulations hadn’t been written for that kind of operation.

Coal seams in this area of Ravensdale stood nearly vertical as seen in this geologic cross section. – Golder Associates.

Most men who worked at Rogers #3 were lifelong coal miners.  All were in their late 50s and early 60s, except for a cousin, Bob Morris; my brother, Barry Kombol, and me.  Two dozen miners had retired over the previous eight years, but enough experienced men remained allowing Palmer to finish its underground mine while honoring contracts supplying coal to State prisons.  Palmer’s management was mindful of the decades those miners had worked in the industry and sensitive to union pensions that hung in the balance.  A few more years would strengthen each miner’s retirement payout.

One day in early September, Jack pulled me aside and asked if I’d work the afternoon shift while attending college.  It was my senior year where an easy slide towards graduation was a natural expectation.  Jack explained I’d earn the wage rate under the United Mine Workers contract to which Palmer was bound.  A Grade 2, Tipple Attendant made $45.93 per day.  That UMW day rate was the equivalent of $32 per hour in today’s currency.  To a money-hungry lad like me, that sounded awfully enticing.  I talked it over with my folks and a decision was made.

Surface facilities at Rogers #3. The tipple to the left and load out bunkers to the right.  Photo by Don Mason, early 1970s.

The afternoon shift was from 3 – 11 pm, so it made sense to live at home.  My first three years of college were spent at Pi Kappa Phi, where I enjoyed the camaraderie of fraternity brothers plus the assorted characters who boarded in spare rooms.  Ours was a frat house with a classical facade, good cooks, and two hot meals a day.  Staying at home would make me a “townie,” so I’d only pay fraternity dues plus the meal rate for lunch, a significant saving over full room and board.  I drove my parent’s 1968 Renault, an unusual car in those days – basically a Volkswagen Bug for cheapskates.  The no-frills Renault got good mileage, had a stick shift on the floor, with an A.M. radio.  What else could I possibly need?

My schedule was grueling.  Monday through Friday, I was up at 6 am, fixing breakfast while Mom packed my evening dinner in a metal lunch bucket.  I loved yogurt and back then little was sold in stores, so Mom cultured her own which I ate from a squat thermos.  She, Pauline (Morris) Kombol was herself, a coal miner’s daughter.

I left Enumclaw every morning at 7 am.  Traffic was light with far less congestion than today’s clogged freeways.  Interstate 5 was a breeze with only occasionally slowdowns.  I arrived at the University of Washington campus about 8 am, parked at the fraternity, then walked to my 8:30 class.  My first break came at 9:30, so for an hour I studied at the Husky Union Building, and then sped off to my 10:30 and 11:30 classes.  By 12:30 pm, I rambled back to the fraternity for lunch, studied for an hour, and left Seattle at 1:45 arriving at the Ravensdale mine by 2:45 pm.

Joe Ozbolt, left and James ‘Bo’ Williams, right inside the Rogers #3 washhouse. Photo by Charlie Falk, February 1975.

In the washhouse, I joined other miners where we changed from street clothes to working gear.  There were only six miners per shift, but I was exclusively night shift so worked with alternating crews each week. We walked up a slight hill to the hoist room and met the day crew coming from the mine.  Our counterparts were greeted and a light banter exchanged.  The afternoon shift started at 3 pm, lasting eight hours including a dinner break.  My job involved standing at a waist-high metal platform, where coal was separated from rock.  It was called the picking table and I was its operator.  The picking table was located in the belly of a triangular wooden structure called the tipple.

A loaded coal car is being dumped from the top of tipple into the chute below. The picking table was behind the silver-colored sheet metal above the dumptruck where waste material was collected before being hauled to the rock dump.  Photo by Bill Kombol, April 1975.

The job was simple – push coal to the right and rock to the left.  There was one primary goal: don’t let rocks smash your fingers, lest you wind up with a throbbing fingernail rapidly turning purple.  Still, it happened, and no matter how long you sucked that pulsing finger, the pain lingered.  Sometimes it hurt so much, you had to heat a sewing needle red hot then drill down through the nail to release the pounding pressure caused when blood rushed to repair the wound.

The picking table was six feet wide and about two feet deep.  The left third featured a hinged trap-door balanced by a pulley and weight.  When 100 pounds or more of rock accumulated on that side, a trap door released the waste material that fell into a dump truck below.  The large chunks of coal which landed on the table were pushed right into a crusher and broken into small pieces.

Barry Kombol, ready at the picking table – notice how clean he is at the start of a shift.  Photo by Bill Kombol, April 1975.  
A Moulden & Sons dump truck filling up with coal to be hauled to Palmer’s Mine #11 yard in Black Diamond for further processing.  Photo by Bill Kombol, April 1975.

Above me was a chute regularly filled with coal and rock brought from the mine and dumped from the tipple above.  A slanted door of thick steel, opened and closed by an electric motor, regulated how much coal came through that chute.  After falling down, the coal mix vibrated over a sloped screen with square openings.  The smaller-sized pieces (less than 4” in diameter) dropped onto a conveyor belt and were carried to the loadout bunker.

The slanted door on the chute had to be set to just the right level.  Opened too much and excessive coal crashed down, blinding the screen, and left the picking table a cluttered mess.  If the avalanche was too large you couldn’t separate the rock from coal fast enough and both ended up discarded.  But when not opened enough, the screening process slowed, and the next coal car to dump was stalled, disrupting the entire operation.  Getting it right was fairly easy when coal was uniform, and rocks were small.  But sometimes, large chunks of sharp-angled sandstone and sedimentary rock jammed between the chute door and vibrating screen.  The rocks wedged together at such awkward angles that none could break through the hatchway.  The bind got so nasty that rocks were stuck even with a fully opened door.

When that happened, I rushed to the hoist room and told the operator to stop pulling cars from the mine.  The hoist-man operated a large spool, six feet across upon which was wound 1,000 feet of 1” thick steel cable.  It resembled a gigantic fishing reel.  The cable spun through a bull-wheel atop the tipple providing leverage needed for pulling five-ton coal cars up from the bottom of the mine.  After the car was dumped, the hoist operator braked against gravity, allowing the car to free-wheel down rails tracks along the 48º slope, through a mine opening called the portal.

A closeup of Bill McLoughry operating the hoist. The drum and steel cable are in the background.  Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1974.

With coal cars stopped, I ran back to the picking table and turned off the vibrating screen.  I climbed up and with a long metal pry bar tried dislodging rocks to coax them through the door.  If that didn’t work, I’d pound repeatedly with a sledgehammer to break the burly rocks into smaller pieces that could fit through.  Sometimes the clog was so bad, the hoist man joined me as we tried to get things moving.  Some nights the work was so grueling my body was drained in sweat.

Hoist operators: Roy Darby, top left; Frank Manowski, top right; and Bob Morris, below.

Other nights the coal was so perfectly sized that 95% of the mix cruised through the screen.  The few melon-sized chunks which dropped to the picking table were easy to handle and my job was a breeze.  After screening five tons, I had plenty of idle time awaiting the next coal car’s arrival at the top of the tipple.

A bucket seat salvaged from an old sports car had been set up in the picking table chamber.  Trips arrived every six to eight minutes, and I usually screened a carload in two to three minutes giving me several minutes between loads.  In between, I read my textbooks perhaps a page or two, until the next car arrived.  Its approach was signaled by the pitch of the whirring cable and sway of the tipple.  When coal and rock crashed into the hopper above, that meant another five tons to screen.

The rail tracks leading to the portal opening, seen mid-photo as the darkest area. This photo of the portal opening into the mine was taken from atop the tipple looking down.  Photo by Bill Kombol, April 1975.

From time to time, I emptied the dump truck parked below.  After 10 to 12 tons of rock dropped through the trap door to the waiting dump box, I scurried down, jumped in the truck, drove to the rock dump, and emptied the load.  The truck was dumped five or six times a night depending on the percentage of rock to coal.  I needed to be fast, as coal cars kept emerging from the mine.

On nights when coal wasn’t hoisted, I rode a coal car 800 feet underground to work with the miners.  There I performed laboring tasks – sometimes drilling coal and loading dynamite.  Other nights I helped set timber props that held up the roof of the mine.  Or cleaned coal spilled on rail tracks.

Bill Kombol handing John Costanich a stick of dynamite ready for loading into a drill hole.  Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1974.
With a long plastic pole Bill Kombol helps John Costanich (on platform above) push the dynamite to the top of the drill hole.  Dummy bags were put in last to plug the hole and ensure a successful blast.  Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1974.

The most mindless job was filling dummy bags with loose clay used for stemming plugs.  After loading a drill hole with a dozen sticks of dynamite, the sausage-sized, clay-filled, paper bags were punched into the end of the hole.  This focused the energy of the explosive force to blast intact coal into thousands of smaller pieces.   Otherwise, the explosion would blow out the bottom of the drill hole, like a firecracker dud.  Dummy bags were in constant use during mining, so I spent hours bagging up a week’s supply or more.

Bill Kombol filling dummy bags and placing the finished sausage-sized bags into an empty dynamite box.  A “dummy bag” was a paper sack filled with clay or shale and used to stem drill holes. The dummy bag was about the same size as a dynamite stick.  After the drill hole was filled with dynamite, several dummy bags were tamped tightly as stemming, so that the dynamite blast would break and loosen the coal rather than simply blow out the end of the hole. “Stemming” means to tamp, plug, or make tight, to ensure a successful shot.  Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1974.

One shift, bored and alone in the crosscut, I turned off my miner’s lamp to see if my eyes could fully adjust to the dark.  It was an experiment.  After 10 minutes, I slowly drew my hand towards my eyes guessing ambient light would illuminate the outline of the appendage, but there was nothing – complete and total darkness.  There was no sound beyond my breathing.  The lack of sight and sound that far below the earth’s surface conjured feelings I’ve never forgotten.

People often asked what it was like working underground.  The best part was a constant temperature somewhere around 50º. There was little air movement except for a slight breeze from fans that ventilated the mine.  We didn’t have to worry about rain, as it was dry except for a stream of underground water that accumulated in a ditch next to the hanging wall.  It flowed to a sump and was pumped outside.  The mine tunnels were supported by a three-piece timber set, consisting of two uprights supporting a cross beam log all tied together by an overhead roof of rugged boards, called lagging.  It was a comfortable working environment, save for the fact everything you touched was black.

At 7 pm, work stopped for our dinner break.  I moseyed down to the hoist room where a pot-bellied coal stove kept the tin shack warm.  On rare occasions, the miners came up from below to warm themselves and join us.  But most nights it was just me and the hoist man, either Roy Darby, Bill McLoughry, my cousin, Bob Morris, or sometimes Frank Manowski.  Pee Wee, the dirty black mine dog hung out in the hoist room.

George Savicke, right eats his lunch while Tony Basselli toasts his sandwich on the pot-bellied coal stove in the hoist room. That night the two miners came out from below for their dinner break.  November 1974.

Dinner break was a time to relax, chat, and eat the meal Mom prepared 12 hours earlier.  Sometimes she packed homemade soup in a thermos, but more often a meat and cheese sandwich, which I toasted atop the hot stove.  I was talkative and conversations with the old coal miners took curious turns.  Almost to a man, they told me to get an education and stay out of the mines.

Following our half-hour pause, it was back to work until 11 pm when our shift ended.  Then I dragged my tired body, covered with sweat and coal dust, down to the wash house where we showered on concrete floors, under three side-by-side spigots.  It was like traveling back to a shoddy version of a junior high locker room.  The hot showers felt good, as did donning clean clothes you’d changed from eight hours earlier.

Pee Wee, the hoist room mine dog carrying a miner’s lunch box ,then seeking attention and perhaps a snack from the miners. Photo by Barry Kombol, April 1974.

Each night, your work clothes were hung from hooks on a wire basket, with gloves and hard hat placed inside.  A chain and pulley hauled the gear to the eve of the wash house where heat naturally accumulated.  If your clothes were wet, they’d be warm and toasty by the following day.  Each Friday, I brought my dirty garments home for Mom to wash.

I was in my car by 11:20 pm for the 20-minute drive back to Enumclaw.  I brushed my teeth and plopped into the same bed I’d slept in since sixth grade.  Falling to sleep each night was the easiest part of my day.  Six hours later, it started all over again – up for breakfast, in my car, and driving to the U.W.

On weekends, I’d sleep till 11 or noon.  I had no life outside of school and work.  All my friends were away so largely I kept to myself.  Some Saturday nights, I walked to the Chalet Theater to see a movie.  But mostly I studied, typed papers, and prepared to face Monday.

After two college quarters and more than seven months of this routine, I was burned out.  Fortunately, the underground coal mine was preparing to shut down.  My night-shift job on the picking table phased out shortly after the start of the spring quarter.  I completed my senior year living in Enumclaw but no longer working at the mine.

When the Rogers #3 mine finally closed, a retirement party was held featuring a cake with all Palmer personnel, who were part of the last underground coal mine in Washington State written in the frosting. 1975.

In addition to my regular Econ classes, I took a one-credit P.E. in tennis and a two-credit course on nutrition.  But my favorite class spring quarter was a three-credit course entitled the Living Theater.  We studied drama, went to plays, and wrote reviews of those we saw.  It was my favorite college class and fittingly my last.

During those days of school and nights of work, my dreams were filled with fears – of papers not completed and exams I didn’t understand.  Remarkably, I scored all A’s, and only one B that year.  Slowly my life recovered as I took pride in a fat bank account.  It’s easy saving money when living at home with no time to spend it.

For more than a year prior, I’d suffered an emotionally embarrassing case of facial acne.  I felt ugly.  But nothing Dr. Homer Harris, a noted dermatologist prescribed seemed to work.  I stopped getting haircuts and grew my hair out.  To hide my pimpled face, I quit shaving.  Perhaps it was the release from stress or maybe shaving irritated my skin.  But the acne lessened and within a few months disappeared.  I began to feel human again.

I graduated that June, with a B.A. in Economics.  I was tired of college. My attachment to fraternity brothers dwindled and I abandoned the academic scene.  I had no interest in attending commencement.  My sister graduated from high school that same year, so the folks wanted to throw a party for the both of us.  I declined their offer and also pointedly skipped graduation ceremonies.  My diploma arrived in the mail four months later.

Four years of study and 195 college credits produced this Bachelor of Arts in Economics, mailed to me several months later, as I had no interest in attending graduation ceremonies.

A few relatives and two high school teachers sent congratulatory cards. My Grandma Kombol, a school teacher for 44 years gave me Webster’s Third International, a 13-pound dictionary I still cherish.  I loafed all summer.  I bought a motorcycle in August and moved to Lincoln City that fall.  There I collected unemployment checks, read books, and walked on the beach.

Working at a coal mine my senior year of college was an experience I’ll never forget.  It was a lonely existence within a beehive of perpetual motion.  My life was a rolling slog in squirrel-cage.  That choice shaped my life, unlike anything before or since.  Perhaps the Stoic philosopher, Seneca said it best, “Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.”

The mine and the old miners are now all gone.  All that remains of Rogers #3 is the weather-beaten washhouse.  Still to these memories I remain eternally grateful – the miners with whom I worked, the hours spent driving to and fro, the classes attended, and college papers written.  Textbook pages studied, the picking table, cement-floor showers, and the sense of freedom that spring when released from the whirlwind into a world of plays and theater.

Of those days long-ago, this memory I shall never forget – dinnertime in the hoist room, standing beside a hot coal stove, and tasting the melted cheese on the sandwich Mom lovingly packed for me.

I kept my hard hat and lunch bucket and recently photographed them atop a pile of stoker coal.

* * *

After loafing all summer, bumming that fall in Lincoln City and cashing unemployment checks, seven months later, I came back to work for Palmer. My uncle Charlie Falk took this photo of me in January 1976, where I was working in Enumclaw helping PCC relocate the Stergeon cement  bins to Black Diamond for use at the coal mine wash plant there.

 

 

 

Categories
Musings

The Man Who Dredged, Filled, and Sculpted Lake Sawyer

by Bill Kombol

One man was responsible for the vision behind dredging, filling, and sculpted what is now known as Lake Sawyer Park. He lived on Lake Sawyer for nearly two-thirds of his life.  That’s a long time for a 95-year-old who built his lake home in 1961.  His name is Jim Hawk and he’s arguably done more to craft the Lake Sawyer we know today than any other person.

LS065- Lake Sawyer, circa 1985 looking south east. Jim Hawk’s completed project can be seen at the top of this photo at the south end of the lake.

Jim Hawk was born in Seattle on April 27, 1926.  His father, Ray Hawk was of Dutch descent but left his Pennsylvania home at age 13.  His mother, Mary Romano, was the daughter of Italian immigrants.  His grandfather, Sam Romano was blinded by a dynamite blast at age 18, returning to Italy where doctors restored his sight. Sam came back to Seattle and started a family-owned construction company, Romano Engineering which developed the Riverton quarry and built highways, bridges, dams, and other projects.  

The extended family lived in one large home in the Mt. Baker neighborhood of Seattle with Jim’s Italian grandmother, Anna who spoiled Jim and his cousins rotten.  Growing up Jim loved chemistry and inventions.  With money earned from cutting lawns and landscape work, he’d head straight to Scientific Supply Company to buy chemicals and lab equipment.  Often his mother signed permission slips so Jim could purchase ingredients which could only be sold to adults.  Jim was known as the “mad bomber” of the neighborhood making rockets and bombs from his chemistry set. 

Jim graduated from Franklin High School in 1944 and would have been drafted for World War II, but for an automobile accident near Skykomish which left him nearly dead and lying in the river bed.  He spent a long time recovering from a collapsed lung.  That fall he enrolled at Seattle University graduating in 1948 with a degree in chemistry, his childhood hobby.  However, one of his most consequential lessons came from a Jesuit priest in an American history course Jim hadn’t wanted to take, but was required to graduate.  To this day, Jim remembers the opening lecture.  “All history teaches is that we never learn from our mistakes.”  A light came on in Jim’s brain.

After graduating from Seattle University, Jim was accepted into graduate school at the University of Washington.  He joined the chemical engineering program seeking a PhD in electro-chemistry.  Jim demonstrated his early brilliance by proposing an idea of creating fluorocarbons through electrolysis with hydrocarbons.  The professor was amazed as Jim described a process which had only recently been theorized.  However, his graduate studies fizzled when Jim took a heavy load of classes.  One consisted of memorization which didn’t teach him to think; another by a professor who on day one asked his students, “Which course am I teaching?” And the third, who, “Didn’t teach you to think outside the box,” as Jim recalled, “The biggest dud of my life.”

Around this time, the Romano family business began to disintegrate.  His dad, Ray Hawk started Black River Quarry, Inc. mining a rock deposit near Tukwila where the Black River once flowed from Lake Washington into the Green / Duwamish River.  The Black River disappeared in 1916 after Lake Washington was lowered 9 feet and connected to Puget Sound through the Ballard locks.  Ray was having problems running his quarry so reached out to Jim who dropped out of grad school.  He planned to help his Dad for a short time.  Jim easily solved early problems though each day brought new challenges so he stayed on full time.  Eventually Jim took over the business. 

Grand projects like redirecting the White, Black, and Cedar River, plus lowering the level of Lake Washington were common in the early 1900s.

Jim’s talents were always larger than his business life.  In 1953, he filmed a nature movie from the cockpit of his Super Cub float plane.  The movie was professionally shot in 16 millimeter wide-angle, commercial cinemascope, color film with Jim narrating.  He offered the movie to Disney but they declined.  In 1958, Jim married Mary Jo Burns, and by 1961 they’d built the Lake Sawyer home where they still live today.

In February 1966, Jim purchased a 31-acre parcel of primarily swamp land from John D. Nelson for $37,000.  Nelson bought the property in 1945 from Pacific Coast Coal Co. at a price of $820. It was located at the south end of Lake Sawyer with access at the terminus of S.E. 312th Street.  Jim’s vision was to turn the marshy property into a lakefront residential development.

This 1936 aerial view of the south end of Lake Sawyer shows the swampy area where Hawk dredged and filled in the late 1960s. The Lake Sawyer Road is the bright white line to the left. Ravensdale Creek be seen to the north, while Frog Lake through which Rock Creek flowed is southeast of the lake.

Jim’s company, Black River Quarry (BRQ) mined rock, much of which was sold during wet winter months.  But Jim had a problem keeping key employees busy during the slow summer season.  He employed four extremely talented individual who could do just about anything when it came to earthmoving.  Chris Peterson was one of the best shovel operators to be found, even into his 70s.  John Yourkoski was a journeyman bulldozer operator who also ran loader and dragline.  Walt Schoebert was a master mechanic with a knack for tinkering and building machines from component parts.  Don Shay worked in the office and was always ready with sage advice. 

Jim spoke with experts, but nobody had ideas for building a road through a twin-creek delta, that was half swamp with the other half peat bog.  So he read widely about bogs and contacted Leno Bassett who mined peat in the Cottage Lake area.  Bassett provided good advice and Jim’s plans soon took hold. 

Hawk obtained Hydraulic Project Approval from the Department of Game & Fisheries in 1967 for a channel change and excavation of the shore of Lake Sawyer.  The permit allowed dredging of two creeks and the lake’s bottom, with requirements to protect water quality.  Work was done on an intermittent basis to prevent excessive siltation.  Production was prohibited on weekends and holidays to protect recreational users of the lake.

LS015- Southeast end of Lake Sawyer, circa 1968-69. This view shows the early construction of gravel dikes and the dredging of the Ravensdale Creek inlet to the right. Aerial photo by Jim Hawk.

Jim’s plan was to refashion the swamp into 31 acres of dry land surrounded by open water, the two separated by piling and wooden wall panels.  The topography was surveyed by Jim and BRQ employees using probing devices to determine whether they were standing on peat soils that were floating over water.  After the initial survey was complete, a rudimentary plan was developed to build access roads and perimeter dikes throughout the dense jungle of interlocking vegetation. Behind these dikes new dry land would be formed from the dredged and fill material.  Outside the dikes open water would connect Ravensdale Creek and Rock Creek to Lake Sawyer.

To gain access through the marsh, a floating road concept was utilized.  In some places peat and mud extended down over 40 feet before reaching compactible soils.  Downed logs, brush, and debris from clearing were used as a mat that was pushed down into the peat and mud by a bulldozer.  A gravel road several feet thick rested above the “floating vegetation mat” below.  Pit run gravel was obtained from three barrow sites on the property.  Those gravel deposits rose 10-15 feet above surrounding terrain.  Most of the older-growth trees outside the gravel extraction areas were preserved. 

LS026- South end of Lake Sawyer, circa 1968-71. This was the staging area for the piling and panels forming the pier wall which separated land and water. Photo by Jim Hawk.

This floating road needed to be stable enough to support bulldozers and a 53-ton Northwest brand cable-operated shovel.  The shovel doubled as a crane, equipped with a 3/4 cubic yard clam bucket for digging or a dragline bucket for open water dredging.  Other miscellaneous equipment supported the operation.  When remembering the challenge, Jim laughed out loud, “Nobody else in their right mind would have tried it.”

The long-term success of the project depended on using the best bulkhead materials available.  Jim found piling at the Wyckoff Company consisting of hemlock poles, pressure-treated with Chemonite preservative, yet still needed to find a long lasting cable to hold everything in place.  In a stroke of luck, Jim talked to Pacific Iron & Metal who had just come upon 14,000 lineal feet of surplus 3/4” stainless steel cable which could be had for 50-cents a foot.  Jim bought it all.

During the summers of 1967 and 1968, the initial work of building a perimeter road to separate Frog Lake from Lake Sawyer was completed.  The dragline shovel operating from the road excavated mud from the lake and built a containment berm just inside the gravel road.  The pile driver used the same perimeter road to drive treated wood piling until these long poles reached a firm foundation.  The piling were driven at an average 10-foot spacing with treated wooden walls placed between, thereby providing a sturdy barrier between land and water.  

The first phase of the project ended, but the next stage of dredging and pumping was even more challenging.  The dredge–pumps Jim investigated were typically used in oceans and rivers, far too large for a small lake.  Once again he consulted experts but found no clear answers for available technology. 

Ever persevering, Jim and his master mechanic, Walt Schoebert began designing their own machine.  It was a tall order as it had to float; move around the lake; cut through a dense mat of peat, roots, and mud; shred the mixed result; then pump it through pipes into diked areas.  In addition, the machine had to work around and through ancient logs littering the bottom of this jungle-strewn bog.  

LS021- The south end of Lake Sawyer, circa 1969-71. The cutting and dredging machine created by Walt Schoebert and Hawk is parked next to recently installed piling. The gravel dike road is partially covered by water to the right of the piling. Bob Eaton’s white boathouse located at 23232 S.E. 312th (now owned by Adam & Jenna Running) can be seen in the distance. Photo by Jim Hawk.

The next order of business was building a barge consisting of sealed floatation tubes connected by decking where machinery could be housed.  Paddle wheels were installed on each side of the floating wing tubes for propulsion.  A 4-cylinder GM diesel engine was bolted down to power the large hydraulic pump driving the machinery.  A cutting wheel was developed which could be lowered by boom into the muddy vegetated morass.  The cutting knives were protected within a collecting box.  The emulsified cuttings consisted of chopped roots, peat, mud, and wood shreds. 

In order to suck this slurry and water mix, a pump designed for sewage plants was chosen.  That impeller pump thrust the slurry mixture through heavy rubber piping to containment areas behind dikes.  If they hit a log or something impenetrable, the cutting heads stopped and the differential caused the pump to stall.  The boom then lifted the log out of water and resume dredging.  Jim attributed the success of their home-made dredging machinery to his mechanic, “Walt Schoebert could build anything.”

LS029- All of the components of Hawk’s plan can be seen operating in this circa 1969-71 photo. The gravel dikes contain the hydraulically dredged and pumped slurry of lake sediment, while the log booms retain floating debris. Ravensdale Creek enters into the long canal in the center. The large peninsula of pumped sediment is to the right. To the far right is the larger inlet where Frog Lake flows into Lake Sawyer. Aerial photo looking east by Jim Hawk.

The system worked so well you could see clearly the cutting knives through the water when wearing Polarized sun glasses.  In addition, a floating log boom was constructed to curtain off the work zone and ensure no floating debris left the active dredging area.  No complaints were ever registered by lake residents.  Bob Eaton, the closest neighbor in the last residence on S.E. 312th Street was always supportive.  An official from Department of Fisheries and Game once stopped by the job site and declared the operation, “The cleanest lake clean-up we’ve ever seen.” 

The dredging work continued over the next three summers allowing the muddy mix to consolidate during the fall, winter, and spring seasons.  The project was completed by 1972.  During five years of operation there was never an accident or mishap. 

LS032 – This view looking southeast shows Hawk’s work circa 1969 with Frog Lake visible in the center right of the photo and Palmer Coking Coal’s slag pile near Highway 169 in Black Diamond in the far upper right. Aerial photo by Jim Hawk.

The completed land form was ready for development, but the property lacked sewers and wasn’t currently viable as the 31-lot plat Jim envisioned.  So rather than develop the few lots that could be served with septic tanks and drain fields, Hawk pursued other ventures.  When asked why he didn’t move forward, Jim said, “I’d accomplished the job and had no need to sell.  Frankly, we were hoping for something better than just a dozen more homes on Lake Sawyer.”  When asked if he was proud of all he’d accomplished, Jim demurred, “It worked,” then added, “plus it gave me satisfaction to do something that all those experts and soil engineers couldn’t do.” 

This June 1, 1970 aerial photo shows the vast changes completed to date. Hawk’s work was finished the following year.

With his newly developed dredging technology, Jim turned his attention to helping Lake Sawyer residents rid their shorelines of unwelcome milfoil.  This non-native and invasive plant sets down a deep set of tangled roots which envelope shallow areas of the lake.  Using concepts similar to his recently utilized dredging equipment, Jim invented a machine to remove milfoil.  It consisted of a cutting edge on the bottom surrounded by a screened cage allowing excess water to drain.  The machine worked so well, he even received a patent and named it the “Water Bulldozer.” It was mounted on a self-propelled barge.  Jim tested the equipment by cleaning out much of the boot at the north end of Lake Sawyer.  Inspectors from the Department of Fisheries told him it worked great but they would still require each lot owner to apply for a separate hydraulic permit.  Jim lamented, “It was a great idea that didn’t work because of bureaucracy.” 

In 1985, Hawk turned his attention back to the Lake Sawyer jewel he’d sculpted more than a decade earlier.  He installed rockeries along certain shorelines where unprotected gravel bulkheads were eroding. But, the regulatory climate had changed.  The government agencies which had once praised his work refused to issue permits.  King County filed criminal charges against Hawk in Aukeen District Court claiming he’d harmed the environment by failing to secure a hydraulic permit.  Jim hired Alva Long as his defense attorney.  The judge who heard the case declared Hawk’s existing restoration sufficient and Jim was order to pay court costs of $8.  King County and the State Department of Fisheries followed up with letters certifying compliance with permit conditions.

LS184 – In 1985, Hawk undertook additional work on his property, but ran afoul of new regulations. Restoration included adding gravel to shorelines and planting Douglas fir and red cedar trees along the lake shore.

When completed, Jim Hawk had created over one mile (5,600 lineal feet) of Lake Sawyer waterfront in three main sections surrounded by two navigable bodies of water.  But Jim was on to other ventures.  In April 1989, Hawk sold his 31-acre Lake Sawyer property to Palmer Coking Coal Company, who owned 480 surrounding acres.  With proceeds from the sale, Jim assembled acreage to build the Jade Green Golf Course on the Lake Holm Road, east of Black Diamond. 

Ten years later, much of Hawk’s Lake Sawyer improvements became part of a 162-acre acquisition by King County of a planned regional park.  Portions of the park land and open space within city limits were deeded to Black Diamond in 2005.  Today the developed Lake Sawyer waterfront created by Jim Hawk is the focal point of a park through which a future trail connecting the Cedar and Green Rivers will pass.

Jim Hawk in the kitchen of his home on Lake Sawyer. This photo was taken the day of the interview, March 25, 2017.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Jim Hawk, the son of Pennsylvania Dutch and Italian ancestors constructed this remarkable development at the south end of Lake Sawyer.  After all, it was practical Dutch engineers in the Netherlands who created an incredible system of dikes and canals reclaiming vast areas of that country from the sea.  And in Seattle, it was Italian immigrants, with surnames like Segale, Merlino, Scarsella, Scocollo, Fiorito, Pierotti, and Scalzo who built the vast reach of roads, bridges, cuts and fills throughout the Puget Sound area.

Jim Hawk was never afraid to dream big. In 1983, he directed preparation of drawings showing a series of connected waterways anchored by his earlier work on the south end of Lake Sawyer. Environmental regulations had tightened and the grand ideas envisioned by his Lake Sawyer Project were out of step with the times and never seriously pursued.

This story was written from an interview conducted by Bill Kombol on March 25, 2017.  One key but little discussed element of Jim’s life was recounted by Scott Sandwith, his former son-in-law.  Scott suggests the foundation that enabled Jim to build so much was his wife, Mary Jo’s eternal support for his “brilliant plans and ideas.”  Scott continued, “Mary Jo and Jim are two matched souls who embody what a marriage can be,” that resulted in the amazing and supportive legacy of five children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.   Jim and Mary Jo Hawk live in the same family home they built in 1961, located at dock #104.

Post script: James Leonard Hawk (Jim) died on May 29, 2021, a few weeks after this story was published.  He was 95-years old.  His obituary appeared in the Seattle Times on June 14, 2021

Jim Hawk’s legacy – his south Lake Sawyer bulkhead shoreline on a peaceful day in late autumn 2022. Photo by Bill Kombol