Biohazard Cleanup Near Alterra Newcastle, WA

Newcastle is a city in King County, Washington, on Seattle's Eastside, whose entire early history revolves around coal mining.

Surveyors Philip H. Lewis and Edwin Richardson discovered coal along Coal Creek in 1863, and the settlement founded in 1869 was named for the idiom about carrying 'coals to Newcastle.'

The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad reached Newcastle in 1878 — the first railroad built in King County — and Newcastle coal went on to fuel the growth of the Port of Seattle.

According to the City of Newcastle, nearly 11 million tons of coal were mined there between 1863 and the mine's closure in 1963.

During its 1880s mining heyday, Newcastle had the largest African American population in the Puget Sound area, larger even than Seattle's.

The mining heritage survives in local names such as Coal Creek, Coal Creek Parkway and the Coal Creek and China Creek golf courses at the Golf Club at Newcastle, the latter named for the Chinese laborers who worked the mines.

Newcastle incorporated on September 30, 1994, initially under the name Newport Hills, but voters renamed it Newcastle that November.

The 2020 census counted 13,017 residents in Newcastle, living in 5,132 households.

Asian residents made up 34.8 percent of Newcastle's population in the 2020 census.

Lake Boren and Lake Boren Park sit near the city's downtown, and Newcastle's trail system connects eastward to Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.