Lower Guyandot Sandstone

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

Circa 1906 photo showing a few of the 100 coke ovens of the Turkey Knob Coal & Coke Company at Turkey Knob, WV

Remains of coke ovens at Turkey Knob

The Lower Guyandot Sandstone is not a prominent cliff-forming rock in Fayette County, but has been quarried and was used extensively in the construction of coking plants in the uplands beyond the New River Gorge. According to the West Virginia Geological Survey (WVGS) report of 1919, "the ledge furnished the stone for the construction of a battery of 100 beehive coke ovens at Coal Mine No. 155 on Map II at Glen Jean; and the same is true for another battery of 100 beehive coke ovens at Coal Mine No. 167 on Map II at Turkey Knob." At both locations the stone was quarried from an exposure directly above the seam of Sewell Coal near the mine. The WVGS described the Lower Guyandotte Sandstone as "massive to current-bedded, medium grained, ranging from micaceous to quartzitic, gray to grayish-white."