Mules for Sale near Ravensdale, WA

About Ravensdale, WA

Ravensdale was originally called "Leary", after the Leary Coal Company, in turn named for John Leary, a Seattle coal speculator. The later name came from the flocks of ravens that fed on grain spilled from the boxcars on the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks that ran through the town. Underground coal mining commenced around 1899 by the Seattle and San Francisco Railway and Navigation Company, although coal had been mined in nearby Danville and Landsburg a few years earlier. The coal mines were later acquired by the Northwest Improvement Company (NWI), a subsidiary of Northern Pacific. In 1907, Ravensdale was a coal mining town with a population of about 1,000 residents, most of whom worked for the mining company.