Searching for the Past in Dunbar

1886

Last week, Frank Festa and I took a ride into Fayette County to visit the Dunbar area. Located a bit south of Connellsville, it is a little over an hour away from my house. I’ve been here numerous times and whether hiking, exploring, rock climbing or off-roading in the Jeep, I have ALWAYS enjoyed myself.

    To make the most of the day, we left before the sun rose. While we were loading my car we stopped for a minute to watch the Chinese Space Station pass overhead, talk about good timing! 

    About an hour later we stopped at West Overton Village to take some pictures of the buildings. (and to find a geocache) The village’s principal business was whiskey production. This is where Henry Clay Frick was born in 1849. His father, John W. Frick worked for Mr. Overholt in his grist mill and eventually married Overholt’s daughter Elizabeth. Henry came along a short time later and after growing up, he worked here and at the Overholt Distillery in Broad Ford before moving into the coal and coke industries.

    Soon afterwards we were driving down into the small community of Dunbar. Our first stop was a field where the ruins of several lines of coke ovens sat. Since this is located on private property, we made sure to obtain permission before venturing past the No Trespassing signs.

    If we hadn’t known that the coke ovens were here, we would’ve never guessed it. There were high weeds and plenty of thorned bushes with lots of deer trails running through them. Numerous fallen trees hampered our way into and around the site.

    We soon saw the darkened openings of the ovens. The fronts of all most all of the ovens had been destroyed. This was done to avoid taxation. Up close, we could see the beautiful work that was done making these ovens.

    They are called “Beehive” ovens because of their shape.  They were used to make coke out of coal. Fireproof bricks were laid in a circle and built up like an igloo. A round hole was at the top center.

     The broken edges show how the brick was laid; the heat inside the oven is evident by the scouring and glazing on many of the bricks.

    There are three rows of ovens here with ovens on either side. There are approximately 35 ovens per side, about 70 per row. A few ovens sit closer to the road possibly part of another row that was destroyed when the road was put in, there may have been more here at one time. This is just a small number of ovens in the area, the Dunbar area had over 20,000 coke ovens in 1900!

    The ovens were loaded from the top and once the process had been completed, bricks set in an opening in the front were removed and the finished coke was pulled out to be taken by horse, mule or train to iron furnaces and later, steel mills.

    After “roaming” around the field for an hour or so, we returned to town and parked in front of the Dunbar Historical Society. This organization is a wonderful place to get information about the coal, coke and iron industries that used to be located in this area. The volunteers here have always been more than helpful whenever I’ve stopped in to ask for some help on research. A reproduction of a coke oven sits in the park across from the society.

    We hiked about a mile on the Sheepskin Trail to a spot where 78 more coke ovens had worked. These were called the Uniondale Ovens. Three ovens still have their fronts attached. Iron bars have been placed across the openings to protect them from vandals, making them look like a jail. A sign explains how the ovens worked along with a picture of ovens in use.

    Back at the car, we drove about 5-6 miles into the State Game lands to search for the Old Laurel Iron Furnace. Using Sharp and Thomas’s book, A Guide to the Old Stone Blast Furnaces in Western Pennsylvania, we had a pretty good idea of where it had been located. The book was written in 1966 and a lot of things have changed in the past 58 years. The stream the authors mention as sitting beside the furnace is listed as Laurel Run, on my topo maps it is called Morgan Run.

    We parked in a convenient spot and walked down stream, looking for anything that might have been an iron furnace. We found a large pile of stones and dirt against a hillside near a nice flat area. On closer inspection we found some cut stones and a small section of wall made out of stacked stones. A pit or depression sat beside the mound with a couple sets of stacked stone, perhaps a waterwheel pit.

    Snow hid a lot from us but we did find some slag and that indicted that a furnace had sat near here at some time in the past. In the S&T book they said that the outer stones of this furnace were removed, possibly to help in the manufacture of the New Laurel Furnace, a mile or two further downstream. Looking at what we had found, we were pretty sure that this mound was all of what is left of the Old Laurel Furnace. The Old Laurel Furnace had been built in 1797, two hundred and twenty-seven years ago!

    Back at the car, we continued further into the game-lands. The road degraded into a dirt and gravel road covered with snow and ice.  We drove with-in a ¼ mile of the New Laurel Furnace and then opted to walk the rest of the way due to the steep hill in front of us. The last thing we wanted to do was to get stuck at the bottom of a hill miles from the nearest paved road.

    The New Laurel Furnace sits between the juncture of two roads, one continuing on downhill to the Youghiogheny River and the other crossing Morgan Run and leading up into the hills.

    This furnace was built in 1812. Considering how long it has been standing, it is in fairly good shape. The front face has collapsed and the walls of the remaining sides all show signs of shifting and movement. There are trees growing on it and their roots are pushing the stones further apart. The backside has a large crack from the ground to the top, resembling a large zipper.

    On the east side the remaining arch can be seen. There is also a stone structure sitting close to the furnace on this side which may have been a support for a water wheel. This set of stones has a tree growing on it also, slowly destroying the nicely set stones.

    At the top of the backside, a notch where the loading bridge was attached can be seen. Looking from the front, the curvature of the inner chimney can be seen near the top.

Slag can be easily found in the ground surrounding the furnace.

    Even though it is falling down, it is a grand looking structure. After all these years, the remaining corners are still straight and sharp. It is hidden in the woods where only hunters, explorers and historians would see it. I always enjoy visiting the site. It is quiet here, in the summer it is hidden by weeds, trees and jagger bushes and in the winter it is on display with a snowy covering.

    It is quite different here than when it was in operation. Numerous buildings would have been near-by. Smoke and noise would have filled the air. Workers would have been busy with the operations of the furnace and all the additional jobs required keeping it in blast. The furnaces worked non-stop, 24 hours a day for as long as possible. This furnace went out of blast, or shut down, in 1838, allowing peace and quiet to return to the area.

    Frank and I hiked back up the hill to the car and after a quick stop at the Dunbar Historical Society to say hello, we headed back home. We had found everything we wanted to, the weather co-operated and other than a few punctures by thorns, there were no injuries!

    Back at Frank's car we watched a plane fly underneath the moon as we unloaded the car, a good way to end the trip. Returning home, I was tired but happy!

The Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill

 Frank and I hadn’t been on an adventure in a while so we put our heads together and started planning. We decided to take a trip into Potter County to visit the ruins of the Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill.

    Our scheduled date was for Thursday, a day which turned out to be wet, cold and even snowy at times. This didn’t deter us, we dressed accordingly and hit the road. Our departure was very early since we had about a 3 and a half hour drive ahead of us, if we went straight there. Of course, we weren’t going to do that; there are always detours and stops on any good trip!

    I left my house at 4AM. There was a light drizzle, just enough to have the windshield wipers on low. Traffic is nearly non-existent at that time of the morning; we were well away from the suburbs before rush hour started. After loading up on some fresh coffee, we attempted some photos of the steam coming from the power plant across the river from New Kensington. Our first geocache find was still 30 minutes away, in the darkness beside the road. The car headlights were shining on “the spot” while Frank and I rooted around using flashlights trying to locate it. Every so often a big truck would come around the bend, blowing a blast of noise and cold wind at us as it rushed by. Our next geocache further up the road was found in the daylight. 

    We stopped for a couple caches at Scripture Rocks outside of Brookville. In 1908 Douglas Stahlman started carving passages of scripture onto the rocks here. By the time he carved his last passage, in 1913, he had worked on over 500 rocks in the area. He had some "issues" and ended up in a mental hospital where he lived out the rest of his life. A park has been made to help prerve his work and his memory.

    We followed rt.28 up to its’ northern end in Brockway. Continuing on, it wasn’t until nearly 11 before we arrived in Austin, a short distance away from the ruins. Expecting a walk of about a mile in the rain we were happy to find a road led right to where we wanted to go. Parking on the edge of a steep hillside, we left most of our camera gear in the car rather than carry it with us. This made it much easier to maneuver around and through the brush and over debris.

    A large three-legged cement structure stood near where we parked. Doing a bit of research later, I found out it was a Jensson Acid Tower.  Built in 1917, the tower produced sulfite acid liquor for the paper making process. This liquor was produced by mixing limestone, water and sulfur in gaseous form in this tower.  It would have been fun to climb up the tower but unfortunately, it was beyond my abilities. Sitting beside the tower was a concrete structure which was the sulfur house. Chemicals in it were flammable and had to be kept away from the rest of the plant.

    We then worked our way through some high brush and grasses in a swampy flatland over to the remains of the mill. It appeared to be three stories high at one time. The stairs to the upper levels were broken and so we stayed on the main floor. Numerous holes in the floor showed us a water filled basement. The water was very clear with nothing growing in it. Water was in the basements of all the structures we came across.

    A broken set of steps took me down into the basement but that was as far as I could go. Water was dripping from the ceilings leaving small stalactites and also small waterfalls that we had to be careful to avoid. I was glad to be wearing a hat! 

    The Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill remained in business from 1900 to 1944. It was flooded twice and rebuilt. It was a fire that finally shut the plant down.

    We wandered around the ruins trying to comprehend what we were seeing. This place looks so different now as compared to when it was working. It provided jobs and security to the people of Austin and the surrounding areas. What did these various structures do when they were being used? We had to be very careful where we stepped as we roamed around, avoiding the numerous holes and the thick bolts sticking out of the floors. After taking way too many pictures, we made our way back through the brambles to the car.

    We then headed a few miles up a near-by road to where the dam was built. A park and campground is situated below the ruins. The dam was made by the company to provide water for the paper making process. Unfortunately, the company skimped on materials when making the 50 foot high concrete structure. Money for the project was running out and the owner decided to cut back on a few things. This eventually caused the structure to break apart during a period of high water. When built in 1909, the dam was the highest of its type in Pennsylvania. In 1911, three years later it failed and destroyed the Bayless Paper plant, the town of Austin and another below it, and killed 78 people. The town and the company rebuilt. When it was first built, the townspeople called it, “The Dam that Could Not Break”. Looking at the concrete blocks scattered around below the structure, you can’t help but realize the power of all the water held behind it.

    The rain had turned into snow while we explored the remains of the dam and followed us on and off on the way home. We left the snow behind us above rt.80, though the rain stayed with us for the rest of the trip. The day worked out well, when we were out of the car, there weren’t any extreme rains. The ride home was faster than the ride up since we only stopped for a quick lunch at a fast-food joint. There were no geocaches or photo stops on the way back.

    I returned to my house at 5PM, 13 hours after I left, almost to the minute. We didn’t see the sun rise or set on the trip, but we still had a good time. Good conversations, exciting spots to visit, some good pictures, along with some bad ones also, it was a great day. It was everything we expected it to be!

Altoona and Back

 A friend, Byron Smail recently released a new book that he wrote (Blair County Iron) and was going to give a talk about it. Ann Marie and I were going to go and also spend a little time roaming around the area. His talk was taking place at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum, being a railroad fanatic; I wasn’t going to miss that! We had been to another of Byron’s talks when he had printed his first book and we enjoyed his talk immensely. We were looking forward to both the talk and the trip!

    As is always the case, when we are going somewhere, I look for a few things to do on our trip, a couple little things which might make the ride a bit more enjoyable.

    Of course, there were a couple geocaches on our route. Since we were going to hear a talk about iron furnaces, I also added 3 furnaces that we hadn’t visited yet to our itinerary. We also would stop at a couple quilt shops and a new to us, restaurant. Then, there were the sites we would just run across, we never know what we will find!

    Our start was a little after sunrise, hoping to avoid some of the heat of the day. We ended up in Gallitzin around 9. There was a cache that we hadn’t found a few weeks ago and we were going to try to find it again. Unfortunately, after 15-20 minutes of searching around, we couldn’t locate it. We weren’t too concerned, it is only a game, chances are, we will be back.

    About a mile or two away, just below the railroad tracks coming out of Altoona, there used to be a furnace. The town of Bennington sat here, now all that remains are a couple foundations and a cemetery. My hopes were to find the stack from the furnace. I had only a rough idea of its location; it was below the tracks and above a large slag pile. A couple friends had been there but we hadn’t…yet.

    We drove along a dirt road, searching for where a path/road might have once been, leading down to the site.  We passed a long line of coke ovens; we counted over 40 of them. Hundreds used to be here. The fronts are all broken. I’ve heard that the owners would take the doors and fronts off of them after they were no longer used to avoid taxation.

    We got out of the car and walked back and forth searching for a possible route down to the furnace. At one spot, the slope was extremely steep and almost all of the edges were covered in thick, high Bind weed. Driving back I found what I believed was the trail, I stopped the car and went down over the hill. Fighting through high weeds and jagger bushes I went down a couple hundred yards. AMB stayed in the car and not wanting to continue on by myself and possibly get hurt, I returned to the car. I marked the spot with my GPS, I WILL be back to explore further!

We meandered around the Hollidaysburg area, checking out a couple quilt shops, a roadside veggie stand and then stopped for lunch at a Pennsylvania Dutch style restaurant. A little further down the road we came into the town of Woodbury. The Elizabeth Iron Furnace used to sit here. Peter Shoenberger had a furnace built here in 1827. It operated through 1843 and then it was dismantled and moved. We looked at the field where it once stood but didn’t bother going over to explore. There are no ruins there.

The furnace was moved to Bloomfield Township where it became the Bloomfield Furnace. After operating for a few years, it was once again dismantled and moved to Rodman where it became the Middle Martha Furnace.

    I stopped in a small business and asked if they knew anything about the furnace. Bryan, the owner didn’t know anything about it but he did give me some directions to a near-by limestone kiln. We drove over and stopped to take some pictures.

    Limestone kilns were used to burn limestone to produce lime which was spread on fields to help improve crop yields. They were operated much the same as iron furnaces. Limestone and charcoal, or a similar heat source was loaded from the top and the finished product sunk to the bottom where it was taken out. These kilns can be found all over the state.

    After looking around the kiln and photographing it, we drove to the outskirts of Bellwood, a bit north of Altoona. There we searched for a set of ruins, another Elizabeth Furnace. The first one we looked for was in Bedford County, this one was in Blair. Once again, I only had an idea of where they might be located. I tried coming in from one side of Sandy Run Creek but saw nothing, the land was too flat. The furnace had to be on the opposite side of the stream, up against the hillside.

    We drove across a near-by bridge and tried again. Ann Marie decided to hang out in the car while I searched. My “search” took me through thick weeds and across hundreds of fallen trees. I walked through mud bogs and had mosquitoes feeding off me. I tried my best to avoid the poison ivy. I had shorts on, not the best clothing for bushwhacking and my legs were bleeding from scratches. I followed the stream and didn’t see anything and eventually backtracked. I found a small deer trail and followed it in closer to the hillside and then... all of a sudden, it appeared in front of me. Like a vision it became apparent to me, I could discern between the trees and leaves and the rock ruins behind them.

    The furnace had partially collapsed though one corner was still standing sharp and straight. I didn’t see any openings; they had been covered when the sides collapsed. Older pictures show that there were 3 openings. I climbed up the hillside to the top where I could see the chimney. Looking in, I could see the bricks which lined it and some trash that other “explorers” had tossed inside. Parts of a wall connected the top to the hillside. Numerous animal holes were visible between the stones. After taking a few more pictures, I took the easy way out by sneaking through the yard of a house above it and returned to the car and Ann Marie. She told me that 2 people had stopped to inquire if she needed any help. Nice people in this area!

    We then returned to Hollidaysburg where we checked into a “low priced” motel. We showered and got dressed for the lecture.

    Held in a lecture room in the Railroaders Memorial Museum, Byron kept us enthralled for about an hour and a half. He told about the various iron furnaces situated around Blair County and showed us pictures, both old and present day. He explained some things about how the iron ore was mined and also about some of the limestone quarries in the county. A little bit about the Portage Railroad and the canals was presented also. A little over 50 people were in attendance.

    Leaving the building after the talk we were presented with a wide rainbow that stretched across the sky. The sun was just setting and that added even more color to the view. Driving back to Hollidaysburg, we watched the sky turn orange. The mountains above Altoona showed all the various hills and valleys, all dark, underneath a spectacular reddish orange sky. There was no place to pull over and take a picture, but there is no doubt, it will always be in our memories.

    The next morning, I was up at dawn and went out to find a couple geocaches before I returned with coffee. We returned to Altoona for breakfast at a great diner called Tom and Joes. Opened originally in 1933 it reflects the way diners used to be. The tables and chairs are vintage styled, a counter is available and the food was both flavorful and plenty. Best breakfast I’ve had in a long time!

    We walked down to the RR tracks and watched the east-bound Amtrak train pull into the station. We found another geocache and then headed up towards the Horseshoe Curve. We did another cache there and then went under the tracks, past the coke ovens located in the ghost town of Glen White and then to Gallitzin where we attempted again to find the cache we couldn’t find the day before. NO LUCK! I’d like to think it is gone, how could we have missed it, THREE TIMES?

    We did one more cache in the town and then got onto rt.22 and headed west towards home. We had only been here for two days but we kept saying that it felt as if we’d been on the road for a week. We managed to squeeze a lot into this short little trip; I’d have to say it was another complete success!