Seattle Lighting Company Photograph Albums, 1895-1907

In 1876, the Seattle Gas Light Company purchased land on the north shore of Lake Union due to its projected commercial value. In 1904, rival energy companies joined to form the Seattle Lighting Company. In 1906, this company began constructing a gas works plant at the Lake Union site, which was called Brown’s Point. This plant would replace the gas works at 5th and Jackson St, which was razed for the construction of the Union Pacific Train Station. In 1937, the Lake Union gas plant converted from coal oven gas manufacturing to oil-gas manufacturing. In 1956, the Lake Union Gas Plant was placed on a stand-by basis as Seattle switched to natural gas. In 1970, the City of Seattle commissioned Richard Haag to transform the site of the plant into a public park, which sparked Haag’s popular campaign to “save-the-gas-works.” By the summer of 1976, Gas Works Park was completed, still retaining elements of the original 1906 gas works equipment.

The Blue Canyon Coal Mining Company, located on Lake Whatcom in Whatcom County, opened March 1891. Prior to WWI, their biggest client was the U.S. Navy. On April 8, 1895, an explosion in the mine killed 23 miners. The courts ruled the explosion an accident, caused by an improperly bored hole, which ignited a pocket of methane. The mine closed in November 1919, due to competition from other mines and the increased popularity of oil as a fuel source. Later, stray cinders from a Northern Pacific Railway train ignited the mine's coal bunkers, solidifying the end of the Blue Canyon Mining Company.