An Old Iron Smelting Furnace

[cheftjcook]

It was opening day for trout this past Saturday. A cold windy snowy nasty day for trout fishing, not that it stopped me from being out there with the rest of the nuts, right there with one of my younger brothers. But while in the state park hoping to catch a fish and not freeze doing it! I noticed a sign about some kind of furnace hidden back in the woods. Well it was better than just standing in the wind washing lures, so I went looking for it. Of course telling my brother I was going to follow the stream out from the lake and look for real native trout, like a real fishermen.(hehe) I don't know why but I don't think he believed me by the way he was laughing...Anyway.
What I found was the remains of a whole community built around a metal smelting furnace and the blacksmiths etc, around and supporting community. It was so neat to see this in the middle no where back in the woods with even a few old notary plaques explaining what had been. I took photos to share, hope folks get as big a charge out of it as I did. It is about 40 foot tall, some 30 foot wide with water ways built in to the right side. There were also some large rock foundations of where the smithy and other buildings had been. But the furnace was still standing very well.
By the way he came looking for me 20 minutes later, figured I had found a secret fishing hole and was keeping it to myself. He seemed to get a kick out of the big pile of rocks too or maybe he was just happy to be off the lake and out of the wind were it was alittle bit warmer
TIM

[skunkriv]

Cool chef! Nice surprise to stumble on to. Found this surfin.

In the old industrial village below the dam there was the furnace, a sawmill, a mill that made boxes for cheese, a stamping mill that smashed iron ore into little pieces, company store, blacksmith shop and a mule barn. Families occupied houses along the creek and single workers lived in a bunkhouse. The furnace was surrounded by buildings, and, during its lifetime, over 6,000 acres of timber were cut down to feed it. All that remains are foundations and the furnace. "In its time, Wawayanda was a big operation. It was a little industrial village where quite a few people lived and worked. Once the industry disappeared, the village disappeared with it."

[cheftjcook]

Skunkriv, Thanks for filling in the info on this place. I love all the details, it kind of sends you back in time, A peek into the past.
TIM

[jayco]

We have furnaces in eastern kentucky and southern ohio that are very similar looking to your pics,Chef. I grew up around the "Laurel Furnace" (1 mile from my current home.) Most of our furnaces are crumbling,but they still stand. A good place to learn more : Charcoal Iron Furnaces of Lawrence County, Ohio

[ThomasPowers]

There were quite a few furnaces smelting bog iron during american revolutionary times in NJ. Some of the cranberry bogs were originally mining pits for the shallow bog iron.

There is one that has been restored IIRC and made into a park---they were talking about putting it back into blast for a demo back in the 1970's; now if I can just remember the name...Allaire State Park IIRIC

NJPineBarrens.com - The Pine Barrens... one click away! - Towers of Fire: Iron Production in the Pine Barrens

Thomas