There aren’t many men who’ve done it, but Frank Manowski built a mountain. Through the years he was primarily responsible for the huge slag pile that grew 100 feet above the surrounding area. Frank’s name was practically synonymous with coal-washing operations at Mine 11.
Frank Manowski was the son of a coal miner who grew up in the company town of Black Diamond during its heyday. In 1913 the year he was born, 714 miners produced over 400,000 tons of coal from the town’s three mines. Those miners represented 35% of the 2,015 of Black Diamond’s population that year. Frank is seen here operating the hoist at the Rogers No. 3 mine taken by Barry Kombol in April 1974. The closure of this Ravensdale mine the following year marked the end of underground coal mining in Washington State.
Manowski’s usual job for Palmer Coking Coal Company (Palmer) involved running its wash plant, the central feature of Mine 11’s coal preparation facilities. It was once the deepest underground coal mine in the United States but closed in 1927 after 31 years of operation. Due to its rail facilities, Mine 11 continued to support coal processing and shipping after its closure. In 1945 a new McNally-Norton jig-style wash plant was installed there by Pacific Coast Coal Company. Manowski soon became the wash plant’s chief operator, a position he held for 34 years.
Frank Manowski was born March 18, 1913, to Cornell and Anna Manowski, Polish immigrants who came to Black Diamond in 1900. The couple had 12 children, six girls and six sons the youngest of whom was Frank. The eldest girl remained in Poland with her grandparents. Four Manowski boys, Max, Les, George, and Frank followed Cornell’s footsteps into coal mining. Two sisters, Gertrude (Boback) and Genevieve (Rossi) married coal miners. Frank grew up in Black Diamond graduating from high school in 1932. With a scholarship to play baseball at St. Martin’s College, he continued his education. Frank never lost his love of sports. He played baseball for another 22 years, plus 11 years as a soccer player. He primarily played for Black Diamond’s coal company-sponsored teams.
Frank’s first job was at a sawmill. He began coal mining in 1934. For two years he worked alongside his father at West Coast Fuel Company’s underground mine near Cedar Mountain. In 1939, Frank married Helen Strom of Enumclaw. Two years later a son was born and named Frank (but not a junior). The family lived on Lawson Street next to the Presbyterian Church. Frank soon migrated towards outside surface work in preparation plants, with Strain Coal and Pacific Coast. He was part of the crew that installed the new wash plan in 1945. Palmer leased those facilities from Pacific Coast in 1947, as Manowski continued at the same job for the next 32 years.
The purpose of a wash plant is to separate raw coal impurities such as rock, sandstone, shale, and bone from lighter-weight coal. The McNally-Norton washer was a Baum-style jig with a pulsating motion produced by the intermittent blasts of compressed air. Jigging is an ancient mineral processing method using gravity and water as a medium. In the washer box, heavier waste fell to the bottom and was removed by a bucket conveyor. The resultant slag was collected in a hopper and then dumped into a 5-ton coal car. A hoist-driven drum pulled a thick steel cable threaded through a bull wheel towing the coal car to the top of the pile. Two steel rails tripped the side doors of the rail car and the slag fell away. A water pipeline followed the rails tracks up the hill and hydraulically sluiced the sometimes sticky waste rock down the hill. Over the decades the pile grew to an estimated 1.2 million cubic yards, a large majority of which Frank Manowski pulled to the top.
Frank toiled day in and day out at his job. He knew every belt and bolt in the plant. Frank was handy and over the years fixed, repaired, and reconfigured the machinery more times than anyone cared to remember. When Manowski turned 65 in 1978 it was time to retire. Bill McLoughry, another life-long coal miner from Black Diamond took over and ran the plant until he retired in 1981. The wash plant post next fell to Chris Kroha of Lake 12. He ran the plant until the John Henry surface mine began operating when Doug Sikes of Black Diamond assumed the position. Doug was the plant’s final operation until November 1990, when the McNally-Norton plant washed its last ton of coal, after 45 years of continuous operation. When the surrounding machinery and equipment were dismantled, only the large metal wash tub was retained. It still stands behind Palmer’s retail sales yard.
Frank and Helen Manowski moved to an Enumclaw home on Wells Street in 1959. Their son, also Frank Manowski made a name for himself as recreational coordinator for King County Parks stationed at the Fieldhouse near Pete’s Pool. He held that job for 33 years from 1965-1997. In April 1991, five months after the Mine 11 wash plant shut down, Frank Manowski died at age 78. His wife, Helen survived him by 22 years passing away in Enumclaw in November 2013 at the age of 94. Their son, Frank now lives in Bonney Lake.
