Old Industry
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:38 pm
I've been studying at the library and online about some old industries. Mainly Iron Furnaces from the 1800's. There were 69 furnaces in Ohio's Hanging Rock Iron Region and Kentucky had several also.
http://www.oldindustry.org/iron.html
We stopped at a few of these when we drove down through Kentucky and Tenn. Here are some pictures of 4 that I've been to so far.
Central Furnace is in western Kentucky and isn't in the Hanging Rock region. It had a small Hematite mine nearby along with the limestone and heavy woodlands needed to make Iron. The trees are cut and stacked in huge piles, covered with dirt and burned slowly to make charcoal. Not much of this one left.
Mt Olive Furnace in Southeastern Ohio is covered in heavy brush. This is as close as I could get to it. I still foound some slag pieces in the small stream that ran in front of it. Behind the tree on the right it has an arch that was part of the Charging Ramp.
Vesuvius Furnace is in a state park just down the road from Mt Olive. It's a very nice site with a lake and it's easy to get to. This furnace operated for over 70 years and there was lots of slag and some iron scattered around the grounds and in the stream. The second picture is a large piece of Iron they found when digging around the area, probably weighs 500 to 800 lbs not counting the rock and slag on the bottom.
Fitchburg Furnace is in central Kentucky and is, by far, the best Iron furnace built in it's time. It's actually 2 furnace stacks in one called Blackstone and Chandler. It only ran for 4 years because of poor planning, greed and an economic downturn, along with large Iron deposits found in Alabama and Minn. The second picture has me standing in front of the furnace so you can see just how massive this thing is. It's down several winding roads about 40 minutes off I-75.
This one had some repair in 2009 and looked pretty good for it's age.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOC ... 282334.pdf
http://www.oldindustry.org/iron.html
We stopped at a few of these when we drove down through Kentucky and Tenn. Here are some pictures of 4 that I've been to so far.
Central Furnace is in western Kentucky and isn't in the Hanging Rock region. It had a small Hematite mine nearby along with the limestone and heavy woodlands needed to make Iron. The trees are cut and stacked in huge piles, covered with dirt and burned slowly to make charcoal. Not much of this one left.
Mt Olive Furnace in Southeastern Ohio is covered in heavy brush. This is as close as I could get to it. I still foound some slag pieces in the small stream that ran in front of it. Behind the tree on the right it has an arch that was part of the Charging Ramp.
Vesuvius Furnace is in a state park just down the road from Mt Olive. It's a very nice site with a lake and it's easy to get to. This furnace operated for over 70 years and there was lots of slag and some iron scattered around the grounds and in the stream. The second picture is a large piece of Iron they found when digging around the area, probably weighs 500 to 800 lbs not counting the rock and slag on the bottom.
Fitchburg Furnace is in central Kentucky and is, by far, the best Iron furnace built in it's time. It's actually 2 furnace stacks in one called Blackstone and Chandler. It only ran for 4 years because of poor planning, greed and an economic downturn, along with large Iron deposits found in Alabama and Minn. The second picture has me standing in front of the furnace so you can see just how massive this thing is. It's down several winding roads about 40 minutes off I-75.
This one had some repair in 2009 and looked pretty good for it's age.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOC ... 282334.pdf