Tono is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in southwest

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

in the United States. It was a company-owned mining town founded in 1907 by the Washington Union Coal Company, a subsidiary of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

to supply

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

for their steam

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s. Tono was located in southern Thurston County about south of

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

, south of Tenino, east of the town of Bucoda, at the end of a railroad spur.

History

The town was named

Tono Tono, Tōno or Toño may refer to: Places * Tōnō, the southeastern portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan * Tōno, Iwate, a city in Iwate Prefecture, Japan * Tono, Washington, a ghost town in the state of Washington, United States * Tono Dam, agri ...

in 1909 by one of the many Japanese railroad workers. Folk etymology states the name is a contraction of "ton of coal". As the region was primarily coal mining, Tono was served by a post office under the moniker, Coal Bank. At its peak in the 1920s Tono had over 1,000 residents, 125 houses, a hotel, a hospital, a general store, and a school. The town flourished until 1932 when the railroads began switching to

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s; the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

then sold the mines to the

Bucoda Mining Company Bucoda () is a town in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 600 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The community refers to itself as the "World's Tiniest Town with the Biggest Halloween Spirit". Etymology Th ...

. Afterwards the mines operated intermittently while most of the residents moved away. Many of the vacant houses were sold and moved to nearby communities. By 1950, there were only a few buildings and residents left in Tono. A family-owned coal mine was reported to still be in operation by 1966. The last full-time residents of Tono were John and Lempi Hirvela, who had moved there in 1923. Until 1976, the Hirvelas lived in the last surviving home, the mine superintendent's former residence. In 1967 the Pacific Power & Light Company revived operations at the Tono field, now known as the

Centralia Coal Mine Centralia Coal Mine was an open-pit coal mine, owned by the Canadian-based TransAlta Corporation. The mine shut down in 2006. Also referred to as the TransAlta Centralia Mining (TCM) operation, the coal mine was located approximately northea ...

. purchased the property including the town site (and the Hirvela's home) and began

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

the area to supply coal for the Centralia Power Plant in nearby Lewis County. Mining operations obliterated most of the former town site in the 1980s. All that remains of Tono are a few overgrown foundations. Three coal carts thought to come from Tono's Black Diamond coal mine were purchased, via donations, by the city of Tenino in 2021. The carts were donated to the Tenino Depot Museum with future plans to have them displayed.

References

External links

* * * * {{Thurston County, Washington Ghost towns in Thurston County, Washington Ghost towns in Washington (state) Geography of Thurston County, Washington