Redstone Coke Oven Historic District, Industrial heritage site in Pitkin County, United States.
The Redstone Coke Oven Historic District consists of 90 remaining beehive coke ovens built of stone with rounded tops covered in hardened brown earth, arranged in a 600-foot arc on the west side of State Highway 133 south of Coal Creek, opposite where Redstone Boulevard crosses the Crystal River. A low retaining wall of irregular light-colored stone and wooden guardrails stand before the ovens.
John Cleveland Osgood's Colorado Fuel and Iron Company built 200 ovens here at the end of the 19th century, the largest coking operation in Colorado at the time, producing almost 6 million tons a year at peak. Within ten years the mines closed and the ovens fell into disuse. Their support steel was removed in World War II scrap drives, and Pitkin County bought the land in the mid-2000s after a gas station was proposed; the district was listed on the National Register on February 7, 1990.
The ovens gave rise to Redstone itself: the settlement began with this coking operation, the largest in Colorado at the time. The name Redstone comes from the red sandstone of the surrounding mountains, quarried for the village's buildings. Visitors can read the interpretive plaque beside the small parking area, the district's only other contributing resource besides the ovens.
The ovens are accessible from State Highway 133 and informational signs explain the industrial processes. The site can best be explored on foot to fully understand the arrangement of the structures.
The ovens are made of stone, not brick, with rounded tops covered in hardened brown earth. Their steel supports were removed during World War II scrap drives, and in later decades hippies moved into some of them as living space. Pitkin County bought the land in the mid-2000s after a proposal to demolish ovens for a gas station.
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