The small town of Dayton, Washington, is one of those places where time seems to have stood still for a half century. Dayton is in southeastern Washington state, in the farming area known as the Palouse.
Driving through the town on a journey to Walla Walla wine growing region, we turned down a side road and came across this unusual lumbar yard, which probably hadn’t been painted in decades. The sign says “City Lumber and Coal Yard”. I don’t believe I’ve seen a sign for a place selling coal in my lifetime. Coal, while popular for heating homes in the first half of the 20th century, all but disappeared with the widespread use of natural gas across the North American continent about a half century ago.
So a sign from the past. A coal yard, forever gone.
