Residents of Carbonado vote to incorporate the town on August 17, 1948. Located on the Carbon River in the Cascade foothills of eastern Pierce County, Carbonado was founded in 1880 as a company town by the Carbon Hill Coal Company. The end of major mining operations in 1937 has left it with a diminished population and lacking the management previously provided by coal-company officials. The need for a local government to address ongoing community concerns leads to the incorporation, which is followed by Carbonado residents electing the first town council. Carbonado's elected officials will later lead a successful effort to acquire the mineral rights to the land on which residents' homes are built, ending restrictive covenants that limit homeowners' efforts to make improvements.
A Company Town
From its beginnings, distant financial interests controlled the Carbonado community. The California-based Carbon Hill Coal Company began mining at the site in 1880 and constructed a town to house its workers. In 1882, California railroad magnate Charles Crocker (1822-1888) acquired the Carbonado mines and town site. For many years Carbonado mines produced coal that went to California to fuel Crocker's Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.
During these years the company implemented and managed major improvements to the town. It oversaw construction of housing for workers and their families, platting and grading of streets, and installation of water and sewer systems. Initially taps scattered throughout town supplied residents with water; later the company plumbed houses with hot and cold running water and replaced outhouses with indoor facilities by the 1890s.
In addition to water and sewer, the Carbon Hill Coal Company added electric lights to its mines in the 1890s and wired the homes in town in the years following. Initially a company store operated under a franchise with a private manager but came under direct company control after Crocker assumed ownership of the mine and the town. To attract and keep miners with families, the company facilitated the construction of community amenities including a school, a church building, and a meeting hall. By the early twentieth century the town's population exceeded 1,000.
In the years following World War I, demand for coal dropped, threatening profits for shareholders. In response, the company reduced wages, precipitating a 26-month strike beginning in 1921. When it ended the workers agreed to return to their jobs at reduced pay and the company no longer recognized the union as representing the miners.
In 1924 the Pacific Coast Coal Company, operators of nearby Burnett and other Cascade foothill coal operations, leased the Carbon Hill Coal Company mines and assumed management of the town. It worked the Carbonado fields until 1937, when the combination of the Great Depression and the ongoing conversion to petroleum fuels by industry reduced demand for coal below profitable returns.
After 1937 smaller companies extracted coal at Carbonado intermittently, employing only a few miners. Many families departed in this era, leaving some buildings vacant. While the company sold homes to those who wished to stay, Carbonado went into decline due to lack of oversight from the Pacific Improvement Company (parent company of the Carbon Hill Coal Company), which still owned the town.
From Club to Council
The Carbonado Community Club, founded prior to World War I, represented the town's residents and managed a few civic projects outside the interests of the company. A new baseball field with grandstands was constructed on the flat below town, on the former site of the Chinese workers' dwellings. The community club also constructed a bandstand that survived until 2014. In the 1940s, when Carbonado residents decided it was time to regularize community governance by incorporating the town, many of the first town council members were drawn from the leadership of the Carbonado Community Club.
On August 17, 1948, residents voted to incorporate the Town of Carbonado and elected its first mayor and council. The incorporation took effect a month later on September 13, and the first town council meeting was held that same day. One of the council's first actions was to acquire ownership of the town's utilities from the Pacific Improvement Company, which sold the water and sewer facilities to the new town government for $1 in 1949.
Restrictive Covenants and Mineral Rights
During the 1950s the council's main goal was the removal of restrictive covenants on local property. While homeowners owned their property and the buildings on them, the company retained the mineral rights to everything below ground, requiring a lengthy approval process for home-improvement projects such as retrofitting foundations or basements. These restrictions made lenders wary of approving loans for Carbonado homeowners.
Efforts by the Carbonado town council to acquire the mineral rights were slow due to the reluctance of the company to sell. By the 1960s the town was showing evidence of decline due in part to the lack of new investment. A salvage company purchased the company store building, vacant for a number of years, dismantled the substantial brick structure, and carted away the pieces.
Years of impasse between the council and the company over mineral rights finally ended in 1966. An attorney representing Carbonado discovered that Pierce County assessed the mineral claim at $4,000 and taxed the claim only $233 per year. Carbonado offered the company $4,000 to acquire the claim; the company countered with a $250,000 asking price. Representatives working on behalf of the Carbonado council notified the county assessor of this; the county reassessed the claim at $50,000. When the company learned of its new tax burden, it quitclaimed the mineral rights to the town. The agreement contained the proviso that any proceeds received in the future by the town from the mineral claim must be used to benefit "public educational purposes within said town of Carbonado as may be designated by the town council" (Streepy, 132).
Following the closing of the mines and the transition to local control, Carbonado evolved into a commuter community made up of people and families pursuing diverse occupations. Residents embraced their town's historic past, celebrating the town's centennial in 1980 and the solemn anniversaries of the terrible mine disasters that marked its history. Carbonado's streets are still lined with homes that started as lookalike miners' housing, now maintained for their historic significance while adapted for modern needs. The former post office and barber shop has remained a public space; as of 2018 it housed a popular saloon for travelers headed to and from the Carbon River entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.
