New- Helena's Coke Oven Park!

The Birmingham News

History is foundation of new Helena park

Friday, December 29, 2006
MARIENNE THOMAS-OGLE
News staff writer
Though time has destroyed the roof, the massive stone retaining walls still stretch their original 175 feet in length and 20 feet in width, their 12 oven openings intact.

The Billy Gould coke ovens, used in the 1800s to transform coal into coke to fuel iron production, lie in the Helena woods at the fork of Buck Creek and the Cahaba River. They seem to be in the middle of nowhere, but Helena officials plan to make them the centerpiece of a public park linked to area neighborhoods by a greenway system.

The Gould site would be the latest in a series of properties from the Birmingham area's iron and steel history to be reclaimed for use as public attractions.

Developer Kendall Zettler is deeding the city about 60 acres near his Riverwoods subdivision off Shelby County 52. A six-acre section contains the ovens and an adjacent coal mine, with the balance of the land on the opposite side of Buck Creek.

"This is a beautiful, peaceful spot that many history buffs and Civil War re-enactors are very interested in," Mayor Charles "Sonny" Penhale said. "We want to clean up the area and add some picnic locations, but keep the area as natural-looking as possible."

The ovens, whose massive fieldstones were quarried near the site, lie parallel to the bed of an abandoned railway once used to transport coal and coke, Helena historian Kenny Penhale said.

"The abutments that held the railroad trestles over Buck Creek and the Cahaba still stand and will eventually be used for pedestrian bridges as part of the greenway being planned through Helena," he said.

The date of the ovens' origin is unclear, said Jack Bergstresser, an industrial archaeologist and historian who has long advocated the preservation of the Gould site.

According to Bergstresser, Billy Gould came to Alabama from England as a prospector, miner and engineer. An owner of the Helena mine, he is acknowledged to be the first person to make coke from Alabama coal, and old documents tell of him building early coke ovens.

"When the era of coke blast furnaces got started in the 1870s, ironmakers used the beehive or dome-shaped design, while this style (in Helena) was used prior to that, possibly the 1860s," Bergstresser said. "Either way you cut it, whether built during the Civil War or the 1870s, these are some of the earliest in the U.S. and, as far as I know, some of the rarest in design."

Kenny Penhale said that while the city plans to clean up and fence the coke oven site soon, the area won't be open to the public for at least two years.

"We're getting ready to apply for placement on the state and national historic registers and seek preservation grants from both the state and federal governments to help with the project," he said.

Zettler said the city's enhancement of the site means a great deal to him and his family.

"My father, Phil Zettler, owned the Vulcan Engineering Co. in Helena from 1969 to 1999, and we've been in the iron and steel industry for years," he said. "Our interest in this is doing what's best for the stewardship of the land and the history of Helena."

Bergstresser said he is "delighted that the city is taking over the ovens."

"This is an important historical and archaeological site," he said, "and it's exciting to think that Gould comes to Alabama when the old technology is still in use and builds one isolated pocket of history in Helena."

E-mail: mogle@bhamnews.com