Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Roslyn, WA

Roslyn is a small city in Kittitas County, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains about 80 miles east of Seattle at an elevation of about 3,406 feet (1,038 m).

Roslyn was platted in 1886 by Logan M. Bullet of the Northern Pacific Coal Company as a coal-mining company town supplying the Northern Pacific Railway's push across Stampede Pass.

In 1892, an explosion at Mine No. 1 near Roslyn killed 45 miners — still the deadliest mining accident in Washington history.

Roslyn's coal production peaked at nearly 2 million tons in 1910, and the last mine in the area closed in 1963 as railroads switched from coal to diesel.

After an 1888 Knights of Labor strike, the coal companies recruited more than 300 Black miners from Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky; by 1890 African Americans made up 22% of Roslyn's population, one of the highest shares in the state, and in 1976 William Craven became Washington's first African American mayor in Roslyn.

The Roslyn Cemetery is made up of 26 separate but adjacent ethnic and fraternal plots reflecting the town's immigrant miners, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the same year Roslyn's downtown was listed.

Roslyn stood in for the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska, in the CBS series Northern Exposure (1990–1995), and was also a filming location for The Runner Stumbles and The Man in the High Castle.

The Brick Tavern in Roslyn, operating since 1889, is the oldest continuously operating tavern in Washington state and was featured prominently in Northern Exposure.

The 2020 census counted just 950 people in Roslyn, living in 457 households — far below its coal-era peak of more than 3,100 residents in 1910.

The Northwestern Improvement Company Store, the old company store at First Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.