INDUSTRIAL HISTORY
personnel to keep the area from be-coming
too overgrown.
This furnace predates the Laurel Hill
furnace, having been built in 1810 by
James Stewart and Henry Baldwin. It
was a cold blast charcoal furnace, and
a walk around the property will reveal
slag containing charcoal and iron as
well as the remnants of retaining walls.
The top and several sides are crum-bling,
succumbing to time and nature
after more than 200 years, but the
structure is still impressive. The furnace
was not believed to have been in opera-tion
for very long.
The setting is peaceful, with the
furnace surrounded by trees, ferns and
other forest growth in the summer.
The sights and sounds of Baldwin
Run accompany you as you travel to the
site.
• To get there: Continue down Furnace Lane
past Laurel Hill Furnace on to State Game
Lands No. 42 and park near the sign for the
public shooting range. Note that this is hunting
land, so use caution if visiting in season. You’ll
walk past a number of storage sheds and ga-rages
then continue up the path approximately
one-half mile, mostly uphill, until you see the
furnace just below the trail on the left.
Fort Palmer Coke Works
and Valley Furnace
Two other remnants from old in-dustry
sit on private property but are
visible from the car.
8 | Destination Westmoreland 2018
Valley Furnace sits just off Owl Hol-low
Road in Ligonier. This was built in
1850 by L.C. Hall and Company and
also was known as Hillsview Furnace.
It’s easy to get a good look from the
road, no matter the season. A little far-ther
down on the right sits the quarry
from which they took the stone to
construct the furnace.
The Fort Palmer Coke Works site,
built around 1907 and in use until the
1930s, has about 150 beehive ovens
remaining. Visitors shouldn’t trespass,
but the ovens can be seen from the
road, especially during winter and
spring before the vegetation fills in.
• To get there: To reach the Fort Palmer
Coke Works, turn on to Wilpen Road from
Route 711, then turn on to Coke Oven Road.
The ovens will be on the left (approximately
139 Coke Oven Road, Bolivar, 15923). To
reach Valley Furnace, turn off Route 711 on
to Owl Hollow Road, and the furnace sits just
down the road on the right (424 Owl Hollow
Road, Ligonier, 15658).
Hester Mine and Coke Works
Mance calls this location his “baby.”
In the spring of 2018, Mance and a
group of roughly a dozen volunteers
from the Sewickley Creek Watershed
Association cleaned brush from the 50
beehive ovens located near the village
of Brinkerton in Mt. Pleasant Town-ship.
The result is a dramatic, close-up
look at what remains from a bustling
operation that started in 1900. Opera-tions
officially ended in 1913, when the
mines were played out and abandoned,
but the ovens were used illegally until
1971, when the state forced the Queen
Coal Company to shut down opera-tions
for not having the proper permits
under the Air Pollution Control Act.
Now, history buffs can reach the ov-ens,
largely still in excellent shape, after
a short hike from a parking area.
In the summer, it’s a wide and easy
trail, formerly the Sewickley Branch of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, lined with
wildflowers, raspberries and blackber-ries.
After a 10- to 15-minute walk, the
long row of ovens comes into view on
the right.
It’s possible to climb into some and
fully appreciate their size.
Virtually all can be examined closely
thanks to the work of Mance and oth-ers,
although, as summer progresses,
the vegetation thickens.
To view the back side, duck into the
woods around the corner from where
the ovens begin. There’s still lots of slag
and coke strewn throughout the site.
• To get there: From Route 981 in Carpen-tertown,
turn on to Boyer Road. Make a right
on to Hecla Road then a left on to Armbrust
Hecla Road. Make a right on to Udell Road,
then follow that to the intersection with
Brinkerton Road. Just before the intersection is
a pull-off on the right where you can park and
pick up the trail to the ovens.
Baldwin Furnace Hester Ovens