Roslyn

History

Coal deposits were first noted in the Roslyn area in 1883, with a large vein discovered at the upper Smith Creek canyon in 1885 by C.P. Brosious, Walter J. Reed, and Ignatius A. Navarre. Roslyn was platted in 1886 by Logan M. Bullet, vice president of the Northern Pacific Coal Company, at the time that the company initiated the first commercial coal mining operations there, to support railway operations. Throughout the mid-1880s, the Northern Pacific Railway, the parent of Northern Pacific Coal Company, pushed from the east to reach Puget Sound across the Cascade Mountains. The Northern Pacific began building across Stampede Pass just west of Roslyn, approaching from Wallula in the east and Tacoma in the west. A 77-mile (124-km) gap remained in 1886. In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850 foot (3,002 m) tunnel under Stampede Pass, completing it in 1888. Roslyn, which lies on the route to Stampede Pass, provided the coal for the railway construction work as well as the continuing railroad operations. Between 1886 and 1929, immigrant workers from countries such as Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia as well as from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales came to work in the mines. In 1892, 45 miners were killed in an explosion at Mine No. 1 near Roslyn, the deadliest mining accident in Washington history. Roslyn's peak coal mine production of nearly 2 million tons was reached in 1910. As coal-fired steam trains were being replaced by diesel power, the last mine in the area closed in 1963 as business became unprofitable. As Roslyn was a "company town", life in the early years was centered around the production of coal. Most of the citizens of the town worked either for the…

Geography

Roslyn is located about 1 hour 25 mins – east-south-east from Seattle, Washington. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Cle Elum Roslyn Elementary
  Elementary · Cle Elum · 458 students · 17:1 ratio
• Cle Elum Roslyn High School
  High · Cle Eum · 256 students · 18.3:1 ratio
• Walter Strom Middle School
  Middle · Cle Elum · 236 students · 18.2:1 ratio
• Easton School
  Other · EASTON · 82 students · 16.4:1 ratio
• Swiftwater Alternative High School
  High · Cle Elum · 22 students · 22:1 ratio
• Easton Secondary School
  High · Easton