This cache will bring you to a great historic location in the Leetonia area. We don't have much claim to fame here -- if you notice, all our sports records are years old! -- so this place is pretty much it.
Park here: N 40 53.107 -- W 080 45.351
Get the Earth Cache while you are here, and another cache at the north end of the park. .
The Cherry Valley Coke Ovens site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.In 2013 abd 2014 almost all of the the trees that were growing on top of the ovens were removed, but they were not cut down on a whim. The tree roots were destroying the brick coke ovens. This park has been in various stages of repair and restoration for many years. Grants are issued, work is done, grant money runs out, work is halted. Months of work was done in 2014 to drain all the standing water and divert the underground stream to empty into a nearby creek. Someday this historic park will be completely restored
Believed to have been constructed in 1866, this facility is one of the largest of its kind in the nation. The complex of 200 ovens was erected by the Leetonia Iron and Coal Company, later know as the Cherry Valley Iron Works, to supply fuel for pig iron producing blast furnaces that stood south of this site.
The man-made "beehive" ovens were used to transform hard coal into coke. The "coking" process burnt impurities out of the coal. The end product -- coke -- was the best fuel source for the furnaces that were used to manufacture iron and steel. The facility discontinued operations in the early 1930s at the height of the Great Depression.
You can get to this from the road, but that is the hardest way to access it! I know some of you out there are die hard bushwhackers, but the best way is to drive into the parking lot (coordinates above) and start from there.
Only the parking lot is paved.
RULES OF THE PARK: Daylight hours ONLY -- no night caching. This area is patrolled often.
NO climbing in, on, or around the ovens or in the creek or ponds. This is an historic site in desperate need of restoration. Please do nothing that would cause more damage and/or be dangerous to yourself.