Shoaf No. 2 Mine (ca.1919- ? ), Smiley, Shoaf, Georges Twp., Fayette Co., PA
Owners: (ca.1919- ? ), H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA

Forty-eight double blocks of tenement houses and two single houses were built, modern style, complete water system, with the necessary hydrants and fire plugs installed.  A rock slope 75 feet long, with chain hoist, installed and put into operation.  The landings and haulage entries well timbered, and the slope bottom arranged to handle both empty and loaded cars automatically.

Steel tipple with 1,000 ton bin capacity to be operated by electric power, erected;  Tipple equipped with Heyl and Patterson's chain haul and coal bin levellers and Phillips dump.  No steam generators to be used at this plant, but high voltage line from York Run plant will be taken to transformer house at Shoaf.

Larries, fans and all driving machinery will be operated with electricity.  Steek tank of 140,000 gallon capacity erected.  A new two-story frame stable, with a capacity of forty head of stock, has been built.  34,000 feet of heading driven and seventy-five rooms opened up.  The necessary mine car equipment has been put into service.  10 foot Brazil fan installed for development will soon be replaced with a larger one.
(Report of the Dept. of Mines of Pennsylvania,1906:259)

Coke Drawing Machine No. 1 dates from ca.1905 and was originally used at the Leisenring No. 1 Coke Works.  Coke Drawing Machine No. 2 dates from ca.1907 and served the Bute "West Leisenring" Coke Works.  Coke Drawing Machine No. 3 dates from ca.1913 and served the Monarch "Leisenring No. 3" Coke Works.  The two other coke drawing machines are in fair condition and date from ca.1946.  These contain double-ram bars that speeded the removal of the coke from the bee-hive coke ovens.  Both of these later coke drawing machines were manufactured at Rick's Foundry, Uniontown, PA.

The Shoaf Mine and mine buildings are located across a small intermittently flowing stream which feeds into York Run to the south.  The drift mine entrance is situated on the hillside which extends towards the town of Shoaf. Adjacent to the mine on the steeply sloping hill is the powerhouse, a one-story brick building measuring about 28 feet x 22 feet, that was erected in ca.1905.  To the north, also on the hillside, is the former supply house, a tall one-story brick building with a gable roof, erected about ca.1910.  Below the mine, on the west side of the stream, stands the machine shop.  The tall one-story building was built in ca.1905 and contains common-bond red-brick walls, a gable roof, and riveted steel roof trusses.  It measures about 30 feet x 20 feet and has a one-story concrete shed-roof addition off the east facade.  On the east side of the stream there are two concrete-block one-story buildings erected in the 1960's.  The larger of the two measures about 25 feet x 15 feet and served as an engine house.  The smaller one contains a gable roof and served as an office. 

During its first years of operation the company employed about seventy miners and coke oven workers.  The mine and coke works remained in operation until ca.1922 when, after a shutdown as a result of the 1922 butuminous coal miner's strike, the Frick Coke Company idled the Shoaf operation.  U.S. Steel Corp. restarted the Shoaf Coke Works during World War II and the site remained active until ca.1951.  After laying idle for seven years, the property was sold to Max Noble, who operated the nearby Hoover Coke Works in the early 1940's.  Mr. Noble initially obtained coal for the coke ovens from the Masontown area, bringing it in by truck.  Soon after acquiring the property, however, he commenced strip mining coal from an area north of the Shoaf Coke Works.

Throughout the 1960's the Shoaf Coking operatin employed about 60 men at the coke ovens.  Difficulties meeting the ever changing clean-air requirements of the Pennsylvania State environmental regulatory agebcy resulted in the shutdown of Shoaf's Coke Works in ca.1972.  The coke ovens were fired about once a year during the early 1970's as part of a celebration of this once major industry in the region.

Recently, ca.2005, the Shoaf Coke Works have been left to decay from neglect, it is said that the current owner of the property intends to remove the remains of the coke operation so that he can strip mine the remaining coal seam under them.

Undated photo of a group of miners at the Shoaf Mine.  First row 2nd from the left Steve Slovak, 3rd from the left John Stanfansion, ?  Second row 3rd from the left kneeling Mike Koskanic "Sweetpea", standing in the white sweatshirt, Fred Pierre "Shutty".  Third row standing 3rd from the left George Koskanic "Shammy",  Mike Karas.
(Photo courtesy of Fred Pierre, Jr.)

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