Roslyn, Washington, was a coal mining town located at the eastern base of the Cascade Mountains.

Within two years, the town’s population grew to over 1,000 as miners from the eastern United States and Europe were attracted by the work the coal company offered.

The company recruited black miners from Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky to take the place of the striking miners.

Special trains brought in over 300 black miners and their families during 1888 and 1889.

Once tension subsided, white and black miners worked together peaceably amid the constant danger of the job.