More than 100 years ago, massive steam engines pulled tons of coal-filled cars along this busy railroad route, connecting the rich coal mines of West Virginia to steel mills in the region. The quiet remains of this region's 19th century coal industry lie along the old railroad bed through Coketon and Douglas, where old mine entrances, miners' houses, the mining company store, and the ruins of hundreds of round, beehive-shaped brick kilns can still be seen. In these kilns, workers burned fires day and night to cook raw coal into coke, a more valuable, hotter-burning fuel. Beyond the Coketon Industrial Site, the abandoned railroad bed extends westward through Blackwater Canyon to Hendricks and on to Parsons and Elkins. By 1890, coal dominated the North Fork of Blackwater River near Thomas and Davis as the American economy demanded coal and coke to fuel the foundries that made the steel for the nation's industrial and transportation infrastructure. The mining towns of Thomas, Coketon, and Douglas grew and prospered as thousands of people worked in the mines, loaded coal into railroad cars, built beehive-shaped coke ovens, and tended the fires. By 1906, the mines employed 1,300 men, and by 1911, 12 active mines, 1,235 coke ovens, and 2,500 people filled this narrow valley.