Coal Hollow Coke Works - Shaner, PA

Today Mr. Standard and I headed down to Shaner to look for the remains of 20 ovens from the Coal Hollow Coke Works. These ovens are extremely old, having gone cold by 1886. The name of the mine was the White Ball Mine. I'm unsure if the coke works ever went by this name or not. If you Google "White Ball Coke Works" you get a whole lot of cocaine articles. I'm also not finding it in any of the mining books from that era. 

 

It's hard to find a lot of information about these ovens. We do know the operator was  the Youghiogheny Coal Hollow Coal Company. This company was incorporated in 1865 in Philadelphia. According to the Westmoreland Coal Co. timeline, Y.C.H.C.C. was "organized by Thomas Mellon and other Pittsburgh businessmen. James R. and Horace Magee of the Westmoreland Coal Company served as corporate secretaries, which doubtless accounts for the presence of some of its records in the Westmoreland archive." It also states that company ceased existing circa 1880, so these ovens may have lasted for a relatively short period of time. 

Youghiogheny Coal Hollow Coal Company stock certificate dated 1866. None of the signatures are Magee's so that's kind of confusing. Photo courtesy of eBay, I think it's still on there but grossly overpriced.

1875 description of the operation from the Special Report of the Coke Manufacturing of the Youghiogheny River Valley by Franklin Platt. There has to be an easier way....

The 1879 Coal Trade lists these ovens as nameless. It also opens up some other potential sites including Scott Haven and Alpsville. Most of these places I have been to and covered. This "Saltsburgh" is also a new one to me.

 

From the Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania - 1886

 

The following is an interesting tidbit found in the Cumberland Times December 15, 1879:

Notice how one of the purchasers was Horace McGee. Is this a typo for Y.C.H.C.C. secretary Horace Magee?

 

If anything was done with the property after the sheriff's sale, it is anybody's guess. It seems unlikely to me. Also it's important not to confuse this mine with the Pittsburgh Coal Company's Shaner Mine which was located near this location at a later date.

A portion of the Coal Hollow mine map showing the ovens and something else on the other side of the tracks. This might have had something to do with that washer. The mine entrances are located a good bit to the north of the ovens. The hills in this area are extremely steep and high and are not very explorer friendly. The thing that saved us on these hills were the massive vines that grow down the hillsides.

Mr. Standard a good ways up the hill from me. Notice the vines.

OK, so what about Shaner? This is an old town. In the 1890's there were 36 houses in the village. Today there are about 5. Apparently at one point in time this was the largest town in Sewickley Township but I can't confirm that. Shaner was originally known as Shaner's Station and its post office was named Yohoghany, a very early spelling of Youghiogheny which is an  Indian word meaning "In a roundabout course" or "Stream flowing in a contrary direction".  

Shaner's Station in the 1876 Westmoreland County Atlas. Notice all the buildings on the river side of the tracks. Not one of these buildings survive today. Also notice that Y.C.H.C.C. is all over town.

The following is a brief history of Shaner from Ray Washlaski's website, Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania, which is currently offline due to some RootsWeb hiccup that is lasting entirely too long. 

In the 1890's there were about 36 houses in the Village of Shaner, in 1962 there are only about half as many as that. Shaner was one of the towns along the Youghiogheny River that became a "Ghost Town" with the fall of the coal mining industry. It was the prosperity of towns like Shaner that caused the building of dams and locks on the Youghiogheny River between West Newton and McKeesport. Now the dams and locks are gone. All that can be seen of them, and only at low water, are their former locations in the river.
During the 1890's and later there was a ferry across the Youghioheny River to Stringtown, in Allegheny County. It was a basket affair that was operated on a cable stretched across the river. You had to pull yourself across using the cable. The doctor from across the river had to use it to make his calls in Sewickley township.
The people of Shaner and vicinity went to the Dravo Church, which was located across the river from Guffey. They went in a large flat bottom boat.
There was also a large ferry across the river that could hold a team of horses and a wagon. Four men with oars propelled the boat-ferry across the river.
During the turn of the century Dave Pierce had a railroad siding put in at Shaner. Cattle were brought in by the train car load and unloaded to the farmers which bought them.
Down the tracks, towards Sutersville, was the Buena Vista railroad tower. On the hill above the tower was Summer Hill School. A grist mill was located on this vicinity and was operated by water power from a creek that no longer exists. In 1870 Shaner had a population of 300 people. To go to the Court House in Greensburg, the people would take the B & O Railroad Passenger train to the Braddock Station and then board a Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger train to Greensburg.
In the early 1870's Shaner had two saloons. One was operated by James Skillan and the other by David Keener. Each saloon had its own faction and there was no love lost between them. Their abscence of love caused many hard fought battles between them. With the mines went the saloons.
When William C. Gallagher, the distiller, left Guffey, he came to Shaner and ran an undertaking establishment until 1884 in Shaner. The Village of Shaner was plagued with floods, and they had one on July 26, 1879 which swept away the school house into the river, this school house was rebuild near the same site. Then twenty years later, in the summer of 1899, another cloudburst came down the valley and took the school house away again. This time the remants of the school were used to build a hotel, the Hotel Shaner, it was operated by Ralph Braddigan. The flood of 1879 also swept away the school house that was located down river, or north, at Buena Vista. Shaner was also hit hard by the Big Flood on St. Patrick's Day in 1936 and then again by a flood in 1954. 

Until the Old Miner website is back up and running, you can follow the Facebook page by using this link.

Hotel Shaner postcard. Courtesy of Jackson Township Historical Preservation Facebook page.

Ladies of Shaner. Courtesy of Ray Washlaski. There are no buildings even close to the tracks today.

Honor Roll at Shaner today.

Approaching the ovens. What's left of them.

Walking up the CSX tracks. The ovens are on the right. The river is on the left. In 1876 there were a lot of buildings here.

There are a lot of indentations where ovens once were. A lot of these are simply buried.

A lot of rubble that is very conducive to an old oven site.

Archaeological oven site.

Old ash from a coke oven.

This dirt is very loose. These vines were the only thing getting us through here.

One of the more intact ovens.

Another semi-intact oven.

Looking down through the top of an oven.

Bricks. There's an oven buried under here.

More indentations.

The coal around here is extremely shiny.

A very old Soisson brick. Another thing that was odd about these ovens was that they appeared to be constructed with ordinary bricks. Normally they are built with a fire brick. These were extremely dense brick.

Looking back up the hill.

More enormous vines.

Another buried oven.

Another one.

Looking down at the tracks.

A nice trail running on top of the ovens. Probably an old misshapen larry track.

Mr. Standard waiting for a train.

Here it is.

The most insane thorns I have ever seen.

This old wall was along the tracks just south of the ovens.

Mile marker 303. Shaner's Station, Shaner, Yohoghany.

Back into the village of Shaner.

There are some foundations and building ruins throughout the area.

An old railroad tie retaining wall.

Some more foundations.

A more recent event in Shaner's history was the Shaner Mine Fire. This sign is just outside of town and it's falling apart too. This fire was attacked in 1993-94. I believe it's no longer an issue.

This is the same sign from a few years ago when I was back here. The sign was more readable.

September 28, 1993 Tribune Review article about the mine fire. Courtesy of Lou Corsi.