BRAMWELL — A long-forgotten relic of coalfield history will be getting a new lease on life thanks to the efforts of the Coal Heritage Highway Authority and its new Americorps VISTA volunteer, Sarah Elswick of Bluefield, Va.
Elswick joined forces with the Coal Heritage Authority to advance the cause of restoring, cataloguing and preserving the history of the old beehive coke ovens that were a fixture around many coal mines in the last years of the 19th Century and first decade of the 20th Century. Coke is used in the steel-making process and is produced by burning coal at high temperatures to remove all of its impurities.
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