Clinton Coke Works

The Clinton Mine and Coke Works was listed as a new mine and plant in the 1879-1880 Annual Report of Industrial Statistics. James Cohran and Co. are credited as opening the mine along with its 50 oven coke plant. The mine is listed as having natural ventilation.

In the report of the inspectors of mines from 1890, the mine is listed as connected to the Tip-Top and Valley mines and scheduled to be abandoned. It is also listed as being owned by H.C. Frick Co. at this time.

The ovens sit along an unnamed road off of Broadford Road. The ovens to the left of the road are located in a very brushy field but were more accessible. The ovens to the right only sit about 10 feet from the road but are located in very thick woods behind a very muddy ditch on a steep hill. I concentrated on the ovens to the left.

An almost buried oven.

A nice example of different layers of brickwork.

Inside is pretty intact.

This was taken from the road.

More brickwork.

This is a collapsed building in front of the ovens. I'm not sure if this was part of the complex or something added later. All of the ovens were on the other side of a dead electric fence.

Practically nothing left of this oven.

Closeup on inside bricks.

Bottom of one of the ovens.

A piece of floor tile.

I took a walk down the tracks but didn't find anything.

An old house across from the ovens. I saw a total of three houses that might have been part of Clinton Works.

Shoaf Mine and Coke Works

The Shoaf mine and coke works were constructed by The H.C. Frick Company in 1904-05 and are one of the best preserved examples in this area. Frick kept it in operation until 1922 when it was idled after a shut down resulting from the large coal strike of that year.  U.S. Steel restarted the coke works during World War II and kept them in operation until 1951. Circa 1958, the property was purchased by Max Noble who operated a nearby coke operation. Noble ran the operation until 1972 when he was forced to shut down due to being unable to meet the new clean air requirements from the state DEP. This was the last of the beehive coke plants in Pennsylvania.

The tipple was brought out from the anthracite coal fields around 1963 and probably dates from the late 1950's.

Underneath the tipple.

A big piece of machinery under the tipple.

Heading inside the tipple.

Conveyor and part of the screen.

Just a jumbled mess of steel.

One of the screens.

Conveyor buckets.

Conveyor system.

On one of the decks looking down at one of the screens.

Electrical panel.

Looking down at the conveyor buckets.

Screen and conveyor.

Decking and steel.

Conveyor.

Looking down.

I think this is a sorter.

A lot of belts.

Screens.

More electrical.

These switches were pretty cool. Notice how they're all on.

Big cable spool laying outside.

This is in a building next to the tipple.

More conveyors.

Outside of the tipple and other buildings.

I'm not sure what these are but they were all over the place.

Another mine building.

Another shot of the tipple.

Coke.

Underneath the larry car track.

Larry car track.

The coke ovens, larry cars and loading dock.

Ovens.

Electrical pole for either lights or the larry cars.

Larry cars on top of the ovens. Frozen in time.

Inside of the oven. This is the first time I've ever seen these two pipes in the back of a coke oven. I'm assuming they have something to do with the clean air regulations.

This larry car is sitting across the road from the mine and coke complex.

 

Dock wall.

I'm not sure what this piece of equipment is. It may be a coke unloading machine.

 Miscellaneous things around the site.

Old rail car.

More mine buildings along the road.

Sorting machine along the road.