While exploring the area on our hot springs trip, we drove past these beautiful, crumbling coke ovens in Redstone, Colorado.

 Intended as “enlightened industrial paternalism”, the little village of Redstone was created for employees of John Cleveland Osgood’s coal mining business in the late 1800s. The original town, complete with an inn, library, school, bathhouse, theater and clubhouse, included 84 cottages– many of which are still in use today.

Nowadays, the village is fairly heavy on the commercial quaintness, so I didn’t think to grab a picture, which I regretted once I read up on the place and wished for a comparison photo to post! Here’s a photo of some of the original cottages:

And the coke ovens when they were in use: