Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ore smelting, but also as a fuel in stoves and forges when air pollution is a concern.
Thomas is a city and former coal town in Tucker County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 623 at the 2020 census.
Henry Gassaway Davis was a millionaire and Senator from West Virginia. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1904.
The Blackwater River is a 34.3-mile-long (55.2 km) river in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. Via the Black Fork, it is a principal tributary of the Cheat River. Via the Cheat, the Monongahela and the Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River and drains an area of 142 square miles (370 km2). It is a true blackwater stream, owing to spruce and hemlock trees in its watershed, the tannins of which impart a tea or amber color to its water.
A beehive oven is a type of oven in use since the Middle Ages in Europe. It gets its name from its domed shape, which resembles that of a skep, an old-fashioned type of beehive.
Pocahontas Coalfield, which is also known as the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield, is located in Mercer County/McDowell County, West Virginia and Tazewell County, Virginia. The earliest mining of coal in the coalfield was in Pocahontas, Virginia in 1883 at Pocahontas Mine No. 1, now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Elkins Coal and Coke Company Historic District is a historic industrial site near the crossroads village of Bretz in Preston County, West Virginia. It is the site of the last major coke manufacturing facility to use beehive ovens, and was a major industrial site in northern West Virginia in the first half of the 20th century. Surviving elements include a row of 140 beehive ovens. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1983.
Blackwater Canyon is a rugged, heavily wooded, eight-mile (13 km) long gorge carved by the Blackwater River in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. For many years, it has been the object of controversy as environmental activists have contended with industrial interests over its ultimate status.
Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, also known as Pocahontas Mine No. 1, or Baby Mine, is an inactive coal mine in the Pocahontas Coalfield, in Pocahontas in western Virginia. The mine was the first in the sub-bituminous coal of the Pocahontas Coalfield, opening in 1882. In 1938 it became the first exhibition coal mine in the United States. Uniquely, it was possible to drive one's automobile through the mine, entering through the fan opening and exiting through the original entry. The practice continued until 1970, when it was discontinued due to damage to the roof of the mine from car exhaust.
Calumet is a census-designated place in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Although the United States Census Bureau included it as a census-designated place with the nearby community of Norvelt for the 2000 census, they are in reality two very different communities, each reflecting a different chapter in how the Great Depression affected rural Pennsylvanians. As of the 2010 census, Calumet-Norvelt was divided into two separate CDPs officially. Calumet was a typical "patch town," another name for a coal town, built by a single company to house coal miners as cheaply as possible. The closing of the Calumet mine during the Great Depression caused enormous hardship in an era when unemployment compensation and welfare payments were nonexistent. On the other hand, Norvelt was created during the depression by the US federal government as a model community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal miners.
Kay Moor, also known as Kaymoor, is the site of an abandoned coal mine, coal-processing plant, and coal town near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The town site is located in the New River Gorge at Kaymoor Bottom (38°03′00″N81°03′17″W). It is linked to the mine portal 560 feet (170 m) above on Sewell Bench (38°02′52″N81°03′58″W) in the wall of the Gorge by conveyors.
The Nuttallburg Coal Mining Complex and Town Historic District is located near Winona, West Virginia in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. The townsite is almost directly across from the Kay Moor mine and townsite, now abandoned. Like Kay Moor, the town is built around the railroad line at the bottom of the gorge, with an array of coke ovens and mining structures, as well as a bridge across the New River to South Nuttall.
The Pittsburgh Coal Seam is the thickest and most extensive coal bed in the Appalachian Basin; hence, it is the most economically important coal bed in the eastern United States. The Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh coal bed of the Monongahela Group is extensive and continuous, extending over 11,000 mi2 through 53 counties. It extends from Allegany County, Maryland to Belmont County, Ohio and from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania southwest to Putnam County, West Virginia.
The Dunlap coke ovens are the remnants of a coke production facility near Dunlap, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Built in the early 1900s, the facility consists of five batteries of 268 beehive ovens, which operated under various companies until the early 1920s. The ovens are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are maintained by the Sequatchie Valley Historical Society as part of Dunlap Coke Ovens Park.
Lille is a ghost town and former village in the Crowsnest Pass area of southwest Alberta, Canada. It was a company-built coal mining community that, between 1901 and 1912, hosted a population that grew to over 400. The mines at Lille closed in 1912, due primarily to weak coal prices, increasing production costs, and the increasingly poor quality of the coal. The community was then dismantled and most of its structures were moved elsewhere. Today the site is an Alberta Provincial Historic Resource and is known for the elegant ruins of a set of Bernard-style coke ovens that was imported from Belgium.
Helvetia, located in Brady Township in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, United States, was a company mining town that was purchased by the R&P in 1896. The Helvetia Mine quickly became one of the largest producers in the region, dominating the Reynoldsville coalfield for many years. The company town lasted from 1891–1947. Schools, churches and stores were built for the families of the miners, and to this day a small population still live in Helvetia. The town had three periods of ownership; Adrian Iselin built the town and started commercial operations at the mine circa 1890–1891; during the second period of ownership, from 1896 to 1947, management and operations at Helvetia were under the direct control of the R&P; in 1947, the R&P sold all of its company towns, including Helvetia, to the Kovalchick Salvage Company. The mine was permanently closed in 1954.
Bradenville is a census-designated place and coal town in Derry Township in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located within two miles of the city of Latrobe and is three miles from the borough of Derry.
Klondyke Coke Ovens are heritage-listed beehive ovens at Parker Lane, Brassall, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.It is also known as Klondyke Beehive Coke Ovens and Klondyke Coking Ovens. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2007.
Caroline "Carrie" M. Williams was an African-American educator in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Williams fought and won a significant 1898 civil rights case, Williams v. Board of Education of Fairfax District, which upheld West Virginia's law requiring equal school terms, and established equal pay for teachers regardless of their race.
Kempton is a ghost town in Garrett County, Maryland. Kempton is also partially located in Tucker County, West Virginia.
