Tiger Mountain & Grand Ridge - 1909

(An edited version of this article was published in the Summer 2000 Edition of "Issaquah Living", a quarterly publication of the Issaquah Press.  This text is directly from the source document as submitted by Mr. Erickson)

The year is 1909: Tiger Mountain & Grand Ridge

What do they have in common with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition?

It is June 1, 1909, the opening day of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYP) on what is now the University of Washington Campus, the moment that eight Seattle people had awaited following their dream of showcasing the city and the state to the world.

But what connection does the AYP have to Grand Ridge and Tiger Mountain? To find out let's look at one of the Vice-Presidents of the AYP Exposition, Albert Sperry Kerry Sr.

A. S. Kerry as he was called, arrived in Seattle in 1886. He then went to work at the Oregon Improvement Company’s sawmill on the Duwamish River in South Seattle. His work was such that it caught the eye of C.J. Smith and B. F. Bush who later became the President of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. They backed him in a lease of the Moran Company’s sawmill on the Seattle Waterfront, at what is now Clay Street. Following a fire which destroyed the mill in the fall of 1897, he along with his two half brothers Almon & James Kerry and four others joined the thousands of men and women flocking to the newly discovered gold fields in the Yukon Territory.

Albert S. Kerry, circa 1897, 1898. From the collection of Eric Erickson

Following their arrival at Skagway, Alaska, they determined that the best way to take the 2000 pounds of supplies for each man required by the Canadian Government and machinery for a sawmill and stern wheel boat, was to pack it up Chilkoot Pass. After taking several months to pack the supplies and equipment over the pass, they set up a sawmill on Lake Bennett and provided lumber for other gold rushers to build small boats for travel to the gold fields down the Yukon River. Following passage of most of the gold seekers past Lake Bennett, they built a steam powered stern wheel boat using lumber and the boiler from the sawmill and the paddle wheel machinery they had packed over the pass. In addition to staking and working a gold claims near Dawson City, they hauled goods from Lake Bennett to Dawson. The boat was named the Olive May, after Albert’s wife and daughter’s first names. The boat was later made famous in the Robert Service poem titled “The Cremation of Sam McGee” where he called the boat the Alice May.

Although Albert did not find much gold in claim # 11 above Bonanza Creek, one of his partners in the claim was Doctor Edmund Marburg Rininger, who upon his return to Seattle, built the Swedish Hospital.

Upon A. S. Kerry’s return to Seattle in 1900, he built a sawmill in North Seattle which almost immediately burned down. He then entered into an agreement with the Northwest Improvement Company for purchase of timber on the southeast side of Tiger Mountain. On April 7, 1900, he along with his half brother, James W. Kerry, C.J. Smith, C.M. Nettleton and C. R. Cobb, incorporated the Kerry Mill Company and started building a sawmill and town on the end of the Green River & Northern Railway line. The line which had been extended from Barneston up to the Northwest Improvement Company’s land, became part of the Northern Pacific Railway system. The town was named Kerriston (a short version of Kerry’s Town). As the logging operation headed by James Kerry and the milling operation headed by Albert’s other half brother Almon grew, the town population reached about 400 people. 

His partners in the mill and town, C. M. Nettleton formed his own mill, which operated for a many years on Harbor Island in Seattle, C.R. Cobb went on to build the Cobb Medical Center Building at 1305 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle, C. (Carl) J. Smith a lawyer and financier continued in that business, and his half brothers continued in the many sawmill and logging businesses that Albert started in later years.

In 1906 Albert was joined with J. E. Chilberg, John H. McGraw, H. C. Henry, I. A. Nadeau, C. R. Collins, William Sheffield and John W. Roberts, all members of the Seattle Chamber Of Commerce, and together they undertook the planning and construction of the AYP Exposition buildings and programs.

Town of Kerriston.  From the collection of Eric Erickson

By 1907 the Kerry Mill Company had logged off the lands leased from the Northwest Improvement Company and sold its holdings at Kerriston to the Northwest Lumber Company. Kerriston now had numerous company houses, its own logging railroad system, a school, post office, the sawmill and numerous other support buildings.

About this same time (April 6, 1907), the Issaquah Independent reports that there is hope the Consolidated Coal Company will reopen its mine one and one half miles east of town.

As Albert Kerry devotes his effort to development of the AYP, sometime between 1907 and January 8th 1909 the Consolidated Coal Company sells its Grand Ridge Mine to the Issaquah Coal Company, which in turn sells it to Andrew Reynolds and a Mr. Allen for a reported $ 40,000. Issaquah resident Andrew (Andy) Reynolds is superintendent of the mine and it is sometimes called the Reynold’s Mine.

On May 26, 1909 just before the opening day (June 1) of the AYP, Albert S. Kerry Sr. And C.J. Smith incorporate the Central Coal Company. They acquire the Reynolds Mine and Andrew Reynolds is named as trustee to manage the affairs of the business. The mine is now called the Central Coal Company’s Grand Ridge Mine, named after the ridge under which its coal deposit lay.

As the AYP exposition opens numerous special days are identified and many Issaquah area resident attend the exposition. Local Sawmills at Monohon, High Point, Preston, Kerriston and others shut down to allow their employees to attend such special days as: Lumberman’s Day on July 3, Norwegian Day, Swedish Day, Seattle Day and others. Best days attendance at the Expo ranged from 34,000 to 60,000 per day with a peak day of 117,013 in attendance on Seattle Day.

The President of the United States, William Howard Taft, attended the Expo on September 29th, just 5 days after the first four railcar loads of coal and two days before the next two railcar loads were shipped from the Grand Ridge Mine. William Jennings Bryan attended on October 10th, Bryan Day, just 6 days before the Expo closed. The Exposition closed making a profit with a total attendance of 3, 740,551 and paid admissions of $ 1,096,475.64.

The Town of Kerriston was abandoned in 1943 when the last mill (Charlie Simmon’s Kerriston Shingle Company shingle mill) closed. Today only a few remnants of the town site remain.

Grand Ridge Mine near Issaquah.  From the collection of Eric Erickson.

The Central Coal Company’s Grand Ridge Mine after many improvements including a 900 foot railroad spur, large bunkers, office, blacksmith shop building and additional mine entrances was sold to the Pacific Coast Coal Company who leased it to the B & R Coal Company who continued to operate it until about 1943.

Today the Grand Ridge is being developed into a large housing and commercial area and has been renamed Issaquah Highlands and only a few remnants of the mining operation remain.

As a note C.J. Smith was the lawyer who prepared my grandfather Eric Erickson’s incorporation papers for the Issaquah Lumber Company, in 1929. My Grandfather also worked for a short period of time in the Central Coal Company’s Grand Ridge Mine.

Eric Erickson August 23, 2000