Mineral

History

The area was first settled by non-indigenous people in the 1890s, mostly homesteaders and coal mining and timber prospectors. The earliest known settler was the Fritz family in 1891. The town was founded no later than 1897 on the shore of Mineral Lake, adopting the name from the lake and the veins of ruby of arsenic in the region. The area was referred to as Mineral City and Mineral Creek in its early days. The lake was originally known as Round Top Lake and also as Goldsboro Lake. Many of Mineral’s settlers were from Kentucky. Primarily known as a timber community, Mineral's economic beginnings started with a false find of silver on Mineral Creek in 1892, leading to land speculation and a silver rush. A small colony under the name Mineral City, and an undeveloped camp known as Contact City, began but lack of the promised metal led to abandonment. The remains of both mining sites disappeared after a flood in 1902. In place of silver, arsenic mines were opened and the first roads into the community were built in 1900. The first store opened in 1902. A rail line to the community that offered passenger and freight services was completed in 1905 by the Tacoma Eastern Railroad, leading to the economic expansion of what would become Mineral. The arsenic mines were temporarily successful for approximately five years but they began to wane, losing value as the market for the mineral disappeared. A minor recession occurred due to the closing of the mines as workers were paid in company stock rather than wages. Timber became a major economic force in Mineral after the Mineral Logging Company sawmill was constructed in 1907, at one point employing 200 people. Mineral Lake was often used as a holding pond due to the vast amounts of logging and children who swam in the lake…

Geography

Mineral is in northeastern Lewis County, south of the Pierce County line. The community sits at the southern end of Mineral Lake, south of Elbe and north of Morton. It is east of State Route 7. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mineral CDP has an area of , all of it recorded as land. Water from Mineral Lake flows north down Mineral Creek to the Nisqually River, which reaches Puget Sound northeast of Olympia. Residential lots within the town's core are small in size and rare, limiting expansion. Arsenic is a natural element in the community's water supply, requiring Mineral to drill several wells for safe drinking water. One of the oldest and tallest specimens of Douglas fir ever recorded in the state, measuring at approximately tall, is located near Mineral. Known as the Mineral Tree, it was recorded to have a diameter of and was 1,020 years old. The fir fell in the winter of 1930 and a section was given to the Wind River Arboretum. , the Mineral Tree is officially considered the tallest, as well as one of the largest, Douglas firs in the state.

Race & ethnicity