The city-owned Black Diamond Cemetery, founded in 1884, sits on Cemetery Hill Road, hidden by a row of trees and marked by a wooden sign erected by local Scouts.
The cemetery has more than 1,200 graves, giving visitors a sense of the cultural diversity and tragedy that existed in Black Diamond when coal mining was at its peak. Tombstones mark graves of residents who came from Wales, Italy, Australia, Russia, Germany and many other countries.
Mayor Howard Botts says a Civil War veteran is buried there, as are many children who died in the early 1900s in epidemics of small pox and the flu. At least half a dozen graves mark those of mine workers who died in explosions in 1902, 1910 and 1915.
The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in April 2000.
(Atricle by Dana Blozis SE Living -2007) |