A quiet town that likes it that way

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The town is quiet now, despite the opening of a coal mine outside the city limits a decade ago. Just about the only time it gets noisy here is on Labor Day, when residents have a parade and enjoy a day of festivities in a field just off state Route 169, which cuts through the center of town.

How quiet is it?

More than half the land within the existing city limits is undeveloped.

There is only one elementary school. Junior high school and high school students travel to Enumclaw.

There is no downtown core. Businesses are spread over a wide area.

The town is so small it doesn't have its own chamber of commerce; it shares one with Maple Valley.

A lot of residents like it that way.

But things have changed over the years. Growth has picked up during the past decade. And big changes are looming.

Botts, 65, has lived in Black Diamond all his life. "I have seen so many changes in recent years. Thirteen years ago, we had a population of about 1,100. Now we are a town of about 2,000."

Botts liked it better when the town, which incorporated in 1959, was smaller.

"I could run out back and shoot my .22 (rifle) any time I wanted to," he said. "I can't do that now. Probably I wouldn't want to. But there was that sense of freedom."

Everybody knew everybody else in town when Botts was younger. The adults liked that; the kids didn't.

"My daughter told me once that the problem with that was that young people couldn't do anything in town because everybody would find out and tell their parents," Botts said.

"That's changed," said Luther.