Rural towns share historical ties, among other things

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Maple Valley has much to satisfy history buffs. The area is rich in history, sharing much of its past with Black Diamond to the south.

Maple Valley and Black Diamond also share a chamber of commerce, a fitting situation because the two communities have had close ties through their coal mining, logging, farming and railroading years.

Unlike their neighbors in Black Diamond, Maple Valley residents take comfort in the knowledge that they don't have to waste time explaining the name of their city to out-of-town relatives and friends. There was a time it didn't roll off the tongue so easily. Maple Valley once was known as Vinemaplevalley.

That's the name early settlers George Ames, Henry Sidebotham and C.O. Russell picked in the late 1800s.

The post office eventually balked at that and decided it would have to be broken up into separate words. And a decision was made to drop "vine."

Mayor Laure Iddings, meanwhile, is committed to working to save the vine maple trees for the future -- whatever that future might be.

"It's my hope that in 25 years we will still have lots of vine maples in Maple Valley. . . . It's my job to see to it that we keep those vine maples."