Brooklyn Mining Complex & Community Ruins

Brooklyn is the remains of a 1890s coal camp and mine along New River Gorge’s Southside Trail. The coal tipple is the standout ruin, with foundations and other remains scattered along the trail for as much as three quarters of a mile. Come for a look at a coal town’s industrial footprint, not a restored village you can walk through. Keep off the walls and built features; climbing, sitting or walking on them weakens the structures.

Near the river, Brooklyn’s beehive-style coke ovens sit opposite the trail beside the old rail line. Structural evidence suggests nearly 80 once stood here, lined up so coke could be transferred to train cars. The ovens give you one clear subject amid the scattered foundations; for a photo, frame the line of masonry instead of trying to capture the whole settlement at once.

Built for the Brooklyn Coal Company in the 1890s, Brooklyn was a full-service mining town with a company store, post office and housing. The mine closed in the 1950s, and the community and its structures were abandoned afterward. The mine entrance lay higher in the Gorge, separate from the tipple and coke ovens along the trail.