Cokeville memories: Former residents, hikers revisit ghost of Derry Township village

Ron Ross remembers the demise of Cokeville.

His family’s property served as sort of a passageway for homes that were trucked out of the Derry Township village in the early 1950s — an exodus forced by the building of the Conemaugh Dam.

Ross, 77, estimated he watched 50 homes be moved past the 13-room, three-story farmhouse where he grew up to relocation spots in neighboring communities. His was one of the last families to leave Cokeville and head across the Conemaugh River to their new home in Blairsville.

“I was old enough to remember a lot,” he said.

On Saturday, he was one of about 50 people who made a pilgrimage to the town that no longer exists. Ross can remember chickens in the yard and a full dinner table at his grandparents’ house. He played in McGee Run, even though it wasn’t allowed, and pranked passing motorists with a friend.

But when the dam was built, all of that ended. More than 100 families were forced to find new homes — or relocate their existing residence — outside of the flood control impoundment area.

Many, like the Rosses, ended up in Blairsville.

Cokeville was known for the 200 beehive coke ovens and plant there in the late 1800s. Those operations ceased in the first few years of the 1900s.

Even after its residents were forced out, the close-knit community did not die — annual reunions were held for decades until the final one in 2012.

Dana Spiardi is working to keep the memory alive. She organized the weekend hike and runs a Facebook page where others can share memories about Cokeville.

Her grandparents settled there, and her grandfather — Louie Diana — ran a small store, gas station and tavern in town. They eventually relocated to Homer City.

Spiardi said she grew up hearing about Cokeville from family members, so she knows it was a special place that remains in the hearts of many. She has visited the abandoned community in the past and was able to find where her grandfather’s store once stood.

“I got to stand on that corner, and it felt really interesting. … It’s a real family connection,” she said.

On Saturday, she passed out to hikers plot maps and a list of Cokeville resident names from a 1952 edition of The Blairsville Dispatch. Some tried to locate their ancestors on the map. Ross didn’t need it to remember where things once stood among the brush, trees and yellow trout lilies.

He pointed to where the school was and an old gas station that used to be near the bridge into Blairsville that has since been torn down. He was 8 or 9 when his family moved.

“It was country living,” he said. “Everybody got along. You didn’t have to worry about anything.”

Denise Jennings of Blairsville was excited to see an old picture of an ancestor’s pool hall and locate where her great-grandfather lived.

“It’s amazing,” she said.

Andrea Mackell and Marci Garland are neighbors in homes that were hauled out of Cokeville into what is now known as Cokeville Heights. Mackell and her family have spent time in the past exploring Cokeville — her grandmother relocated a house out of the community and still lives in it.

Garland has lived in her house for 18 years and transplanted some flowers that were growing in the abandoned hamlet to her property — her only connection to the former community. She likes to visit and imagine what it looked like decades ago and where her house may have sat.

“We love the history of it, so I walk down here all the time,” she said.