Black Diamond Yawns, Girds To Take On Flesh And Blood

By H.J. GLOVER

BLACK DIAMOND, Jan. 24. -- Seven miles northeast of Enumclaw, not far from the north bank of the tortuous Green River, a ghost has yawned and is giving every indication that before long it will throw off its spooky habiliments and take on flesh and blood.

As the result of a special election last Tuesday, the Black Diamond settlement, after approximately 75 years of existence, became a fourth-class incorporated town. The incorporationists won by the narrow margin of 26 votes out of 314.

Complete unofficial returns indicated that 170 voters preferred incorporation as against 144 ballots against the proposal. At the same election, the voters named a mayor, a treasurer, four councilmen and one councilwoman.

LLOYD W. HAGEN, 50, a metallurgical engineer employed by the Pacific Car and Foundry Co. at Renton, was named mayor by an almost three-to-one majority over John H. Lombardini Jr., an employee of the safety division of the State Department of Labor and Industry in Seattle. The new mayor is married and has five grown children and 14 grandchildren.

Councilwoman Gertrude Botts is 40, has six children ranging in age from three to 16, and "makes no bones" of the fact that she seriously believes every town council should include at least one woman.

This is her first venture into the field of politics -- as is also the case with the other six town officials -- but she says she's going to give the job "everything I've got." Her husband, Paul, sells and maintains X-ray equipment in the Pacific Northwest.

COUNCILMAN Ernest Richardson, 47, is a machinist for the Pacific Car and Foundry Co. at Renton. He is married and the couple has three children.

Richardson was born at nearby Ravensdale and has lived in the area all his life. The oldest member of the new town council is Stan W. Hubber, 53, who was a coal miner in the Black Diamond area for 30 years. He is presently employed as a forest warden by the State Department of Natural Resources. His wife and son, Richard, are school teachers.

Councilman Louis J. Zumek, 44, is a member of the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, and is engaged in work at the Howard Hanson Dam project at Eagle Gorge. He is married and has two children.

THE FIFTH member of the new council is Gomer Evans Jr., 31. Already, he is being referred to by other members of the council as "the baby." A construction worker, he is married, handsome, and the father of two children. He came to Black Diamond with his parents when an infant.

Frank Costl, 49, is the new treasurer. Employed as a hoisting engineer by the nearby Johnson Coal Co., he is married and has lived in Black Diamond for 47 years.

At an informal meeting of the newly elected officials held at the home of Mayor and Mrs. Hagen on January 21, preliminary plans to get the town's business under way were mapped.

BLACK DIAMOND has five service stations, three grocery stores, one meat market, one restaurant, three taverns, one bakery, a post office, a library and one church. The population is 1,040.

Black Diamond was settled about 1885. Coal has been its life-blood down through the nearly three-quarters of a century. However, crippling strikes shortly after World War I, and the fact that gasoline and oil depressed the coal market in later years, caused the settlement to dwindle away to a ghost town in recent years.

Can Black Diamond as an incorporated town pull itself up by its bootstraps? The opponents of incorporation voice a resounding "No." They say that what has been good enough for 75 years is still good enough for them. However, they are unanimous in declaring that they will give the town administration full backing.

The town's new officials have no illusions about the jobs ahead. They say there will be a lot of hard work and that they probably will make a lot of mistakes, but with one voice they say that "We'll go easy at first, but we'll give it everything we've got."

The administration and their backers point to the fact that tens of thousands of people are coming to the Pacific Northwest. The new officials point to the Howard Hanson Dam which when completed will control the waters of the Green River and prevent almost annual inundation of the area around Renton, Kent and Auburn.

When this becomes a reality, the new officials and their backers say, Greater Seattle will push out into the valley and homes and industry will knock at Black Diamond's door. The ghost is yawning and getting to its feet.