It’s not often that you can stand over history, but that’s possible in Roslyn, a former mining town known more for being the site of the television series “Northern Exposure” than for coal.
Roslyn, just off I-90 on the east side of the Cascades, has much to offer visitors beyond TV memorabili
a, including my favorite cemetery complex.
While the mystique of “Northern Exposure” remains, it wasn’t Roslyn’s first claim to fame. That came in 1979 when Dick Van Dyke played Father Rivard in the Roslyn-area-filmed “The Runner Stumbles,” set in an impoverished coal mining town.
You can still eat in the Roslyn Cafe, the buildings still exist, and yes, the fans of the TV series continue to trickle into town, including Europeans.
Visitors can still eyeball the carved moose, buy memorabilia and check out the Ausburg clock at the Roslyn Museum that was used in the “Nothing Perfect” episode.
It took six people five 12-hour days to use a dinner plate, dollies, a soup can, gold leaf, plastic angels, clockworks and Nativity figurines to create the clock that Maurice Minnifield ordered shipped to Cicely.
More than a century before Joel Fleischman, Maggie O’Connell, Ed Chigliak and Ruth-Anne Miller arrived, immigrant workers were toiling in the mines.
Roslyn, where coal was king from 1886 to 1963, is home to the largest coal field in the state and some of the most extensive coal fields on the West Coast.
“According to the coal field blueprint, one coal field is six miles long and three miles wide, with 13 underground levels and 400 feet between levels,” said Nick Henderson, president of the museum.
Fifty-six miners died in the mines, including 45 in 1892 in the state’s worst mining disaster. Those men are honored with a statue called “End of the Day” and a memorial wall with names of the dead at Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, above the mine.
Some of the dead had participated in the 1888 strike, fighting for an eight-hour day. Blacks were brought in to break the strike, but apparently, after post-strike tensions lowered, the various races and nationalities, for the most part, peaceably worked together.
“It was the largest African-American migration to the Northwest at that time,” Henderson said.
Stopping at the Roslyn Museum is a must. What sets it apart from other historical museums is the amount of mining artifacts.
“Coal miners from Pennsylvania and West Virginia have come here, and they’re just amazed at the amount in the collection. One woman said her husband looked like he had walked into a candy store,” Henderson said.
Blueprints of mines and equipment, unusual for museums, are complemented by thousands of photographs and ethnic histories.
“Roslyn was a melting pot of immigrants from Europe, and a lot of their artifacts were collected. Nearly each group had lodge or club memorabilia and photographs of the Old Country people,” Henderson said.
It’s a genealogical delight with stacks of yearbooks, photo albums and family histories.
A United Mine Workers sign reminds workers of several rules, including No. 4: Do not spit on floor; and No. 5: Working clothes should be taken home once a month, at least.
The museum, which started in 1969, also has mining equipment outside, including mine cars, coal undercutting machines, and an electric mule, a locomotive that moved the cars inside the mine.
Part II of the Roslyn story, including the Brick Tavern and unusual cemeteries, will run next week.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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