Black Diamond’s history and heritage was celebrated July 6 with the city’s annual Miner’s Day Festival which culminated with the unveiling and dedication of the Black Diamond Coal Miners Memorial.

The honor garden includes a 13-foot bronze statue of a coal miner sculpted by Ellensburg artist Paul Crites and a 28-foot granite wall, engraved with the names of miners who have died in mines throughout Washington state, and engraved bricks at the base of the statue and wall. Surrounding the memorial and historical museum is a landscaped garden.

According to Black Diamond Historical Society President Keith Watson, the idea for the memorial began years ago, but started in earnest about two years ago when he and former Black Diamond Mayor Howard Botts and their wives made a trip to Roslyn, Wash. There they saw a memorial for Roslyn miners that became Watson and Botts’ inspiration.

“That is what we wanted to do but we wanted it to cover the entire state,” Watson said.

Watson said a large donation in the beginning and volunteers from around the region brought the vision to life.

“It’s amazing how everything fit together,” Watson said. “The number of volunteers that stepped up to the plate, it was amazing.”

Watson gave an example of a Black Diamond woman, 94-year-old Katherine Daniels, who did the flower gardens for the memorial and donated a deer statue.

“She is probably there today,” Watson said Monday.

Former Mayor Gomer Evans Jr., a lifelong Black Diamond resident, was another of the guiding forces behind the project. Evans’ father was a fire boss in the mines. At the unveiling ceremony Evans told the story of how his parents met, married and raised a family of nine children in Black Diamond.

His father came to America from Wales in 1910. The senior Evans was promoted to fire boss when he was 18. The fire boss was the first worker to enter the mines at the beginning of the shift and ensure it was safe.

Evans said his parents met and married in 1916. His father was living in a “single men hotel, the Barkley Hotel in Black Diamond, and my mother was working there. That’s how they met.”

The sculptor, Crites, who is 71, was present at the ceremony. Watson said Crites came up with the idea of changing the patina to black on the bronze sculpture, because miners were always covered in coal dust in the mines.

Crites started as a cartoonist more than 40 years ago for Western Horseman and other magazines. He also worked as a logger and miner through the years, which has inspired his art.

“It’s all part and parcel of what I do,” Crites said.

Now that the memorial is complete, Evans’ next project is to restore the town’s first fire engine, a 1947 Ford that was headed for the scrap heap.

The memorial event drew a large crowd that included Mayor Becky Olness, Covington Mayor Margaret Harto, Black Diamond City Council members Janie Edelman and Carol Benson, Botts and Dino Rossi.