Editing Newcastle, Washington (section)

==History==
Coal was discovered along Coal Creek in 1863 by surveyors Philip H. Lewis and Edwin Richardson, who had been working in the area for the [[United States General Land Office]].<ref>{{cite web |title= Surveyors discover coal at Newcastle (east King County) in October 1863. |publisher= [[HistoryLink]] |url= http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=149 |access-date=August 9, 2009}}</ref> Newcastle was named for the idiom "[[Coals to Newcastle]]" by a party of coal surveyors in 1869 according to F. H. Whitworth, who was part of the party. One of them suggested the name "New Castle" which was subsequently adopted by all parties of interest. The idiom itself refers to the English city of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Meany |first=Edmond S. |author-link=Edmond S. Meany |year=1923 |title=Origin of Washington Geographic Names |page=187 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027074981&view=1up&seq=203 |via=[[HathiTrust]] |accessdate=August 3, 2022}}</ref>

Newcastle (originally spelled "New Castle") as a village was properly established by the 1870s, though the official date given for the founding of the town is 1869, as seen on the seal for the City of Newcastle. By 1872, 75–100 tons of coal per day were being produced at Newcastle. About 60 men worked at the mines.<ref>{{cite web |title= Newcastle (King County) produces 75 to 100 tons of coal per day in 1872. |publisher= [[HistoryLink]] |url= http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=195 |access-date=August 9, 2009}}</ref> The [[Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad]], the first railroad in King County, reached Newcastle from Seattle in 1878.<ref>HistoryLink (2018), ''[http://www.historylink.org/File/247 Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad reaches Newcastle on February 5, 1878.]''.  Retrieved April 14, 2018.</ref> Coal mining ended in 1963.

The area was an [[unincorporated area]] within [[King County, Washington|King County]] until it incorporated as a city on September 30, 1994. Currently the city is a [[suburban]] community. Based on Newcastle's location north of [[Renton, Washington|Renton]], south of [[Bellevue, Washington|Bellevue]], and across Lake Washington from [[Seattle]], these are the communities in which most of the residents of Newcastle work. East of southeast Lake Washington is a large quantity of hilly terrain, which creates opportunities for view properties. This created the impetus for the location of the Newcastle Golf Course, along with many high-value homes at higher elevations with views of downtown Bellevue, Seattle, and [[Mercer Island, Washington|Mercer Island]], as well as the [[Olympic Mountains]]. Notable attractions of the area include the Golf Club at Newcastle, a brand new Family [[YMCA]], Lake Boren Park, a well developed trail system, and nearby [[Cougar Mountain]] in the east of Newcastle.

===Newcastle and Newport Hills===
The community was not always known as Newcastle. When suburban development came in the 1960s, the old mining town of Newcastle was long gone and all but forgotten. The area then became known as Newport Hills.

In the early 1990s there was a movement to incorporate as a new city. But some members of the community objected—some believed that the new city would be too small to be viable, while others feared that the city council would be in the pocket of the hilltop golf course. In 1993, five parcels of Newport Hills each voted to annex themselves into Bellevue. Those 5 parcels comprised nearly half the population of the community. They became the Newport Hills neighborhood of Bellevue. When Newport Hills incorporated as a new city the following year, their first order of business was to choose a new name, since it would now be confusing to have a city of Newport Hills adjacent to the Newport Hills neighborhood of Bellevue. Residents voted on Cougar Mountain and Newcastle and chose the latter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historylink.org/File/7690|title=City of Newport Hills (Later Newcastle) takes form on September 30, 1994}}</ref>