Lew McCauley is shown here running an electric motor in the Rogers No. 3 mine in 1973. McCauley was born on Lopez Island on June 3, 1911, and graduated from Bellingham High School in 1929. In the mid-1930s he moved to Enumclaw when his brother-in-law, George T. Wake Jr. got him a job at the Franklin Gem coal mine on Franklin hill east of Black Diamond.

McCauley and Wake later bought the mine outright and employed a small number of miners including Frank Grgurich, James “Bo” Williams, Fred Goldsberry and Jim Coutier. The Franklin Gem mine closed in 1950 when the Gem coal seam was on which it was located was exhausted. Several years later McCauley went to work for Palmer Coking Coal Co. He closed out his coal mining career in 1974 at the Rogers No. 3 mine and retired to Enumclaw where he resided for 65 years. McCauley died April 11, 2002 at the age of 90.

Photo taken by Larry Abele, provided by Bill Kombol