Black-and-white photograph of a long, partially ruined stone industrial structure with a row of arched openings, surrounded by leafless trees and brush, with large mounds rising in the background.

Coke & Coke Ovens

Greene River Trail, History, Recreation

The invention of the beehive oven was a major advance in the production of coke. Beehive ovens were large masonry domes and named according to their shape. Constructed in long rows for ease of loading and unloading, workers would bring the coal from the nearby mines, dump the coal in the opening in the top, ignite the coal and seal the ovens to let the coal smolder.

Historic panoramic illustration titled “Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Birmingham, 1871,” showing a wide aerial view of the three riverfront cities with bridges, factories, smoke stacks, steamboats, and rolling hills surrounding the rivers. The detailed black-and-white engraving captures the industrial landscape of 19th-century Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Coal Seam

Greene River Trail, History

Named by H.D. Rodgers of the First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, the first reference to the Pittsburgh coal bed was on a 1761 map. In the mid 1700s at Fort Pitt, coal was being mined on Coal Hill, or as it is known now, Mount Washington. The coal was extracted from drift mines in an outcrop about 200 feet above the Monongahela River.

Historic black-and-white photograph of an industrial mining facility with large buildings, conveyor structures, and smokestacks set against a wooded hillside.

Crucible Mine

Greene River Trail, History

In 1911, the Crucible Coal Company began to develop Greene County’s second largest mine. Located along the Monongahela River, less than two miles south of Rices Landing, the high quality coal from the Pittsburgh seam was to be shipped to Midland to be converted to coke for the company’s new steel mill.