FAYETTEVILLE -- A "Welcome to Brooklyn" sign greets travelers arriving at the entrance to a tiny primitive campground at the end of a mile-long gravel road connecting it to the National Park Service's Cunard River Access site.
A place less reminiscent of New York City's most populous borough would be hard to find.
The six-site riverside campground was vacant, as was an adjacent launch ramp for kayaks. A few yards away, a lone unoccupied car with an empty bike rack was parked near the entrance to the Brooklyn-Southside Junction Trail, providing the only sign of nearby human presence.
Meanwhile, the steady whoosh of mild whitewater surging over smooth rocks provided a peaceful background soundtrack, joined a few minutes later by a low rumble from across the New River where a slow-moving CSX locomotive was pulling a line of hopper cars through the Gorge.
While the locale might emit a far-from-civilization vibe, signs of past human settlement begin to take shape, once visitors take time for a close look at the surrounding forest.
What seemed at first glance to be a retaining wall for Brooklyn Campground's access road turned out to be remnants of a foundation that once supported a coal tipple.
Beneath clumps of brush and an assortment of maturing hardwoods on a narrow strip of flat land a short distance up an adjacent hillside, moss-cloaked crossties and rusty segments of steel rail could be seen resting on the surface or jutting from the earth, marking the site of a long-abandoned spur line.
Further upslope, short squares of hand-stacked stone that once supported homes or outbuildings came into focus amid the rocky scree that had been guided to its resting place by random quirks of time and gravity.
Closer to the New River shoreline, an embankment between the access road and the walk-in campsites turned out to contain a long row of brick-lined, century-old coke ovens, the openings of which now front campers' fire rings.
From 1894 to 1953, here among the boulders at the base of the New River Gorge, a town once flourished. While its population never rivaled that of its namesake, topping out at about 200 in 1920, it was a place of importance. Miners living and working here produced millions of tons of coal over the course of the town's existence, helping power America's industrial revolution.
The first mine to operate at the site was apparently developed by the Finlow Coal Co., for which the town's post office, Finlow, was named. It produced coal from 1894 to 1895 and then was acquired by the Brooklyn Coal Co., for which the town and its railroad station were named and known, though Finlow remained the official name of the community's post office.
Brooklyn Coal added 50 beehive coke ovens to the operation. The company employed more than 70 workers to tend the ovens and extract coal from a 46-to 54-inch-thick seam accessed through a portal hundreds of feet up the canyon wall behind the tipple and townsite.
In 1904, the mine, coking operation and coal camp were sold to the New River Smokeless Coal Co., which operated three other mines -- Red Ash, Rush Run and Cunard -- in the same five-mile stretch of the Gorge.
While no major disasters befell those working at the Brooklyn mine during its five decades of operation, an explosion killed 46 miners at the Red Ash mine in 1900. Five years later, an explosion at a combined Red Ash-Rush Run mining operation killed 13 more miners and 11 rescue workers.
Scotia Coal & Coke Co. bought the Brooklyn mine and coal camp in 1911, and continued its operation until 1953, when the site was shuttered and abandoned. The 1922 edition of "The Coal Catalog" lists G. H. Caperton of Charleston as Scotia's president, and William Gaston Caperton, grandfather of former Gov. Gaston Caperton, as vice president.
Brooklyn was among the last coal communities to take shape in the New River Gorge, with its development starting 20 years after the first mines opened along the newly completed Chesapeake & Ohio Railway line through the canyon, linking Richmond and Huntington.
Though one of the smaller coal communities to rise and fall in the Gorge, Brooklyn had its own company store, company housing, railroad station and post office.
Remnants of the town are now limited to sections of stone walls and foundations scattered among the boulders near the base of the slope at the Brooklyn Campground and Brooklyn-Southside Junction trailhead. The remains of some of the town's 50 coke ovens can be seen from the campsites, and the shell of one building stands near the trailhead parking area.
For more than a half-mile beyond the trail's entrance gate, scattered ruins of Brooklyn, including its company store building, can be seen in the forest and boulder fields on the slope side of the path, which follows an abandoned railroad grade. The seven-mile out-and-back hiking and biking trail continues past the unmarked townsites of Red Ash and Rush Run.
As the National Park Service access road to the Cunard River Access facility begins its descent to the New River, a parking area for the Brooklyn Mine Trail can be seen on the right. A 2.7-mile hike along an old road leads to the portal for the Brooklyn Mine, where the ruins of mine equipment and outbuildings can be seen, along with views of the gorge.
Since Brooklyn lies within the boundaries of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, National Park Service regulations prohibit removing or disturbing its relics.
"gorged" - Google News
March 27, 2022 at 12:30AM
https://ift.tt/fElYoHI
Gorge ghost town of Brooklyn now a haunt for campers - Charleston Gazette-Mail
"gorged" - Google News
https://ift.tt/9RbshpV
https://ift.tt/s3CHF84
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Gorge ghost town of Brooklyn now a haunt for campers - Charleston Gazette-Mail"
Post a Comment