Dunlap's Creek PA

Dunlap Creek PA

west of Allison on the Monogahela Railroad

This journey was actually prompted, not by coke ovens, but by the arch bridges of the Monongahela RR and the Simpson Tunnel. While following the Mon RR from Allison ( one of our all-time favorite coke oven and West Penn Railway towns ) STG Boy no.1 on a solo trip spied coke ovens south of the Mon RR right-of-way at the hard hook in Simpson Road, noted by the orange line. After further research, the STG Boys went back to the area and visited Superior too. Superior was the town across the creek from Dunlap and survives today; Dunlap does not. And there are no roads leading the former site ( the square area in upper left of the 2008 satellite photo).

The 1935 USGS map does not show the coke ovens but does show Dunlap and Superior. The coke ovens locations are noted in red. Our travel path from Allison is noted in orange. The road to Dunlap is gone. The Simpson Tunnel is also not shown for some odd reason.

It required finding the 1938 aerial photos to find the ovens on a map. The house in Superior is noted as a reference point. The Garwood Mine as it was called had 119 coke ovens according to our friends at the Virtual Coal Miners' Museum. ( Why couldn't they just call it the Dunlap Creek mine ? ANSWER - because they would name them after friends or business associates to 'honor' them ! Look up the Edgar Thomson works of USSteel. )

Here is the bridge on Simpson Road that crosses the creek

There is an abutment from a railroad spur that went to the Superior mine.

Here are the coke ovens southeast of the bridge and shown as red line on the maps and aerial photo.

And here is the tunnel that started all of this. The STG Boys have not yet trekked back to it, but we have plans to do so by bike this summer.