Beneath Talbot Hill
Sun, 5 Oct 2025
I was walking around the Talbot Hill neighborhood and saw a coal cart on display, which prompted me to wonder if there was a history of coal mining in the area. I conducted research and found that Talbot Hill is closely associated with coal mining. For nearly half a century, a major mining complex at the foot of this hill drove the local economy, shaped the community, and left an indelible mark on the landscape.
While the first discovery of coal in the Renton area dates back to 1853, when Dr. M. Bigelow founded the Duwamish Coal Company, a short-lived venture, the true beginning of Renton's coal era began two decades later. In 1873, a settler named Erasmus M. Smithers discovered a significant coal seam on the side of what would become known as Talbot Hill. This discovery attracted the attention and capital of Captain William Renton, for whom the town would be named. Together, they established the Renton Coal Company.
Almost immediately, a second venture began nearby. In 1874, the Talbot Coal Company was established by John Leary, John Collins, and J. F. McNaught, marking the opening of the Talbot Mine, located a short distance southwest of the Renton operation. The relationship between these two founding entities is described with some ambiguity in historical accounts. Some sources state that Captain Renton's partner was a man named Talbot and that the two men soon "consolidated the Renton mine with a second one, called Talbot". Other records present them as distinct companies. The most likely scenario is that the two ventures, operating in proximity and exploiting the same coal beds, quickly merged or were consolidated under the more prominent Renton Coal Company banner. The Talbot Mine itself was found to be on a badly faulted coal bed. It was abandoned after a few years of operation, with its identity and operations absorbed into the broader Renton mine complex.
The ownership and operational structure of the consolidated mine underwent significant changes over the decades, reflecting the economic shifts of the era. The initial corporate phase under the Renton Coal Company lasted approximately ten years, until 1884, when operations ceased due to labor disputes. In a remarkable turn, the miners themselves took control, forming the Renton Cooperative Coal Co. in 1886 and reopening the mine. This experiment in worker ownership, where miners could buy a share in the cooperative for $100, lasted until 1901.
The dawn of the 20th century brought the final and most productive phase of the mine's life. In 1901, the cooperative was sold to the Seattle Electric Co., a regional utility, for $30,000. Under corporate control and with significant capital investment, the mine became a financial powerhouse. A 1909 report paints a vivid picture of its success: the mine employed 325 people, had a monthly payroll of $24,000 (a substantial sum for the time), and produced 600 tons of coal daily. Experts at the time confidently predicted there was enough coal in the ground to sustain this level of production for another 50 years. This immense output solidified Renton's status as an industrial hub and a vital cog in the regional economy.
The physical scale of the Renton mine was immense. Its main entrance, or adit, was located at the foot of Talbot Hill, near what is now Benson Road South and the I-405 interchange. From this entrance, the main tunnel ran horizontally into the hillside for 1,000 feet before beginning a steady descent. The main slope plunged downward at a 15-degree pitch for over a mile, deep beneath Talbot Hill and the surrounding area. From this central artery, a complex network of at least 22 branching tunnels, or gangways, spread out to follow the coal seams. It was a vast, dark, and dangerous subterranean world.
Personal accounts from those who worked and lived around the mine provide a human dimension to this industrial operation. Walt Reid, who was the last person out when the mine closed in 1918, began his career there in 1906 as a "mule skinner," driving the mules that hauled coal cars through the dark tunnels. He later became the electrician responsible for the four massive pumping stations. His description of pumping 500 gallons of water per minute, 22 hours a day, seven days a week, highlights the constant battle against flooding that was a reality of mining below the water table.
The life of the mining community extended from the tunnels to the surface and onto the hill above. A.J. Brattus, whose father was a miner, recalled that his family's first home in Renton was a tent pitched on the ridge directly above the mine entrance. This detail highlights a crucial geographical point: while the mine's primary entrance was located at the foot of Talbot Hill, the associated community and much of its supporting infrastructure were situated on the hill itself. The barns for the mules, for instance, were located on top of the hill. This geographic distribution explains why the entire operation became colloquially and historically associated with Talbot Hill, despite its main entrance being located in the valley below.
The surface infrastructure was extensive and highly visible. A high wooden trestle crossed what is now Benson Road, carrying coal cars from the mine entrance to the bunkers on the plain below, where the coal was sorted and loaded onto railroad cars. Dominating the site was the hoist house, which contained the powerful steam or electric engine used to haul the heavy coal cars up the main slope. This structure sat atop large concrete piers, the foundations of which remain today as a monument to the mine. The mine whistle, located on the hoist house, served as the metronome of community life, blowing at 6 p.m. daily to signal the next day's work schedule.
This industrial activity drew a diverse workforce to Renton. In the early 1900s, newly arriving Italian immigrants, seeking work in the mines, established their homes in the Talbot Hill area, contributing to the city's growing multicultural fabric. However, life for the miners was difficult and often contentious. As the mine transitioned from a worker-owned cooperative to a corporate asset under the Seattle Electric Co., tensions grew. Miners organized a series of strikes in 1902, 1904, 1910, and from 1912 to 1914, demanding higher wages and, critically, safer working conditions in the perilous underground environment.
Despite the 1909 prediction of a 50-year future, the Renton mine's demise came just nine years later. The closure in 1918 was the result of a confluence of factors. A fire within the mine contributed to the decision, as did the fact that the operation was beginning to lose money. But the most significant blow came from a fundamental shift in the energy market. Fuel oil, shipped north from California, was rapidly replacing coal as the preferred fuel for industrial power and home heating, causing demand for Washington's coal to plummet.
After the main operation ceased, a smaller-scale effort was undertaken in the 1920s by a man named Bill Strain. He leased the land from the owners, Puget Sound Power & Light Co., and used a single pump to remove the water from a few of the upper levels, extracting the remaining accessible coal. He later moved on to strip coal from the old, faulted Talbot mine workings, scavenging the last remnants of the once-mighty operation.
For decades, the mine lay dormant and sealed, its history slowly fading from public memory. Then, in October 1963, the past dramatically resurfaced. During the construction of the Tukwila freeway, which would become Interstate 405, heavy equipment operated by R.L. Moss & Co. broke through the earth and uncovered the main entrance to the old Renton Coal Company mine. The event was a spectacle. Water, which had been filling the mile-long slope for 45 years, poured out of the opening, forming a deep pool. The excavation unearthed a trove of industrial artifacts: old coal cars, wheels, scrap iron, and the massive squared timbers that had once framed the tunnel entrance. The rediscovery drew people to the foot of Talbot Hill to gaze upon the entrance to what was once Renton's primary industry.
Today, the legacy of the Renton-Talbot mine endures in several forms. The concrete foundations of the hoist house still stand near the freeway, marked with a plaque dedicating the site to the hundreds of miners who worked there. The plaque notes that over 1.3 million tons of coal were extracted during the mine's life. But the mine's legacy is also a geological one. The vast, water-filled voids left deep underground pose a persistent hazard. The King County Sensitive Areas Ordinance specifically defines coal mine hazard areas, recognizing the danger of subsidence and cave-ins. This danger became a reality in the summer of 2018, when a sinkhole opened up along South 23rd Street near Talbot Hill Elementary School, a direct consequence of the century-old tunnels collapsing far below. The subterranean world of the Talbot Hill miners, though long abandoned, continues to shape the surface world above.