I had a wonderful visit with Joe Davis Saturday. He the fellow with the railroad cars in his front yard in South Harriman. Gary Baker, Julian Ahler, and I toured his fantastic railroad collection. I will post photos of that adventure on my blog and on Flickr later in the week.

However, what I want to show you now are the neat old photos I found among his collection, made between 1901 and 1914 of the Waldensia Coal and Coke Company that was constructed off the Westel Exit of I-40 on Milestone Mountain Road.

The company built a dam across Mammy's Creek and used the water from the resulting lake to power their sawmill and coal washers. The coal was put into ovens and burned at high temperatures for several days before turning into coke. The coke was shipped by railroad to steel furnaces all around the country.

The dam, the lake, and the coke ovens are all that remain of this bygone day. It's history that made this country great...we should not forget what was done there.

GO HERE to see the entire collection of current and old photos.