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Archiver > PAFAYETT > 2002-04 > 1017691548


From: "Marj Matzen" <>
Subject: Re: [PAFAYETT-L] Coke ovens
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 14:05:48 -0600
References: <3CA7A509.592C307B@simplegiftspress.org> <002801c1d9af$0413df80$8191570c@pavilion>


What is a coke oven? I have been reading the messages and they are
interesting but did not know about coke ovens. Thank You. Marjorie Matzen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Wargo" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: [PAFAYETT-L] Coke ovens


> Several years ago we went looking some existing coke ovens in Fayette
> County. We found some in Shoaf, in quite good shape and also some old
coal
> cars nearby. Can't give the exact location of Shoaf. I know it was off
Rt
> 119 South, probably in the area of Fairchance.
>
> Jack Wargo, Cleveland, OH (Bn 1930 in Lemont Fce)
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lynne Humphries-Russ" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2002 7:08 PM
> Subject: [PAFAYETT-L] Coke ovens
>
>
> > I have so enjoyed the memories of the coke ovens. It has brought a part
> > of my childhood back to me. As a child visiting my Grandparents in
> > Buffington, the smell of the coke ovens and the slag dump was very
> > strong. Today, there is a just a whisper of that smell in Buffington but
> > it's still there, if only for someone who knew it from long ago. On the
> > New Salem Road from Uniontown, there were coke ovens that I loved seeing
> > each time we drove past them. When I was little, they were in operation
> > but only for a short time, I think. There is a marvelous description of
> > what it was like in the mines and the coke ovens in a book called
> > Patchwork Voices. The book was available at the Coal and Coke Heritage
> > Museum at Penn State, the last I knew.
> >
> > I, too, used to see those amazing rivers of molten coke dumped on the
> > slag mountain near the old Pittsburgh Airport. Then they stopped, along
> > with the steel industry in Pittsburgh. I watched as Century III Mall
> > was built at the foot of that mountain and that mountain slowly was cut
> > down. There are roads on it now and buildings, too. If you go to visit
> > the Mall, there are several of the huge buckets and other machinery used
> > to dump the slag in the landscaped areas. There's even a huge piece of
> > slag, if I remember correctly. The reclamation has been amazing.
> >
> > When I was first married in 1976, my husband and I lived in Oakland, the
> > university section of Pittsburgh for all the out-of-towners on this
> > list. I remember vividly sitting in the living room of the apartment,
> > looking up at the sky and realizing that the sky was an unnatural shade
> > of lime green. Within 12 years, my husband and I had moved to the
> > Baltimore area because there was such a dearth of jobs in the Pittsburgh
> > area due to the demise of the steel industry.
> >
> > While I love this area, I miss Pittsburgh and Uniontown and my home. My
> > family still lives in Bethel Park, Uniontown, Beallsville and, yes, in
> > Buffington, too. And my extended family is prolific in the area. I miss
> > it. Maybe someday I'll get to move back.
> >
> > Happy Easter to All!
> > Lynne
> >
> >
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