MD -- Cunningham Falls State Park -- Catoctin Furnace:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- FURN_080128_003.JPG: Catoctin Iron Furnace
No Time for War;
Gettysburg Campaign
When Union Gen. John F. Reynolds' I Corps marched by here on June 29, 1863, en route to Emmitsburg and soon to Gettysburg, his men were progressing "swimmingly." The workers of the Catoctin Furnace had little time to notice, since the charcoal furnaces were in full blast.
The landscape then looked much different than it does today. The air was filled with smoke and ash and smelled like rotted eggs, while temperatures inside the casting sheds reached upwards of 120 degrees. The mountainside was barren because it took an acre of trees a day to produce the charcoal needed to keep one furnace in blast. Large pits had been dug around the area to mine the valuable iron ore, and there were large piles of lag, the by-product of iron making, scattered in every direction.
During the Civil War, John Baker Kunkel owned Catoctin Furnace. With two furnaces in operation, production was never interrupted during the war, and the furnace workers shipped three tons of pig iron a day east to the larger arsenals and forges that made war material. Iron produced here was used in the manufacturing of ironclad ships like USS Monitor. Employees worked around the clock in 12-hour shifts, earning credit at the company store. According to local tradition, lost and disoriented soldiers from both sides making their way south after the Battle of Gettysburg were offered jobs here because of the chronic labor shortage.
- FURN_080128_004.JPG: "Isabella" and Casting Shed (7)
Catoctin Iron Furnace
A Village and Its Resources:
The quiet village of Catoctin Furnace was a bustling industrial community that began in the 1700's around the Iron-making complex James Johnson built the first furnace with financial assistance from Thomas Johnson, a governor of Maryland during the Revolutionary War. Attorney Baker Johnson later owned the furnace. This location was chosen because of the availability of natural resources in the area and the relatively poor transportation of that time. No canals, trains or trucks existed to move the raw materials which weighed at least 10 times more and took up 100 times more space than the finished product. The "Mountain Tract" (much of which is now Cunningham Falls State Park and Catoctin Mountain Park) provided hardwoods for making charcoal, iron ore, limestone, and water power.
The Furnaces:
"Isabella", the furnace stack before you, was built in 1858 and was the second of three stacks. The first furnace, built in 1776, was probably located behind "Isabella" and used water power from Little Hunting Creek to operate its bellows. "Isabella" and the third stack "Deborah" (dismantled) used steam driven pistons to create the blast of air which fanned the fire within the furnace. All three furnaces had different capacities and "Isabella" produced up to 3300 tons of pig iron annually.
The Iron Making Process:
The operation of the furnace involved several steps. First, the furnace stack was filled from the top with a thick layer of charcoal, a layer of iron ore, and finally limestone to act as a flux mixing with the impurities in the iron ore creating slag.
The furnace was then heated to 3000 degrees F to melt the iron ore. The furnace operated 24 hours a day when making iron. Approximately every 12 hours, foundry men tapped the furnace. Molten iron flowed into channels on the floor of the casting shed. The molten iron was allowed to harden into iron pigs or cast into wooden molds. The name "pig" iron came from the shape which reminded foundry men of a sow suckling a litter of pigs. Iron was made into many items such as cannon shells, stoves, tools nails, and wheels.
The 200 foot rock retaining wall once supported many wooden building and sheds which housed the raw materials for iron-making. The wall and furnace stack were constructed of local fieldstone hand cut by stone masons. The casting shed with the wood-shingle roof was reconstructed in 1975. All other stone remains are original.
Imagine yourself standing here when "Isabella" as alive. Noise and clatter surrounds you. The air smells of smoke and rotten eggs (sulfur). A fine red dust from iron oxide (rust) and clay sprinkle on and around you. The air is almost always hot.
- FURN_080128_039.JPG: Ruins of the Ironmaster's House
- FURN_080128_062.JPG: Ruins of the Ironmaster's House (6)
Once a magnificent house, the ironmaster's mansion was an imposing structure that gave the furnace manager an overview of the furnace complex. The grandeur of the ironmaster's house contrasted with the humble stone cottages of the furnace workers and showed the separation of classes of that day.
The walls were stabilized in 1996 so the public could safely see the ruins. The number of chimney stacks and stone structures easily suggest the former stature of this massive house.
- FURN_080128_086.JPG: Raceway and Dam (5)
Parts of Little Hunting Creek were diverted to suit the needs of the iron furnace and surrounding businesses. You are overlooking the emergency spillway which diverted excess water to Little Hunting Creek. The dam is in the background and the raceway flowed off to the left just behind the dam. Raceways and dams were used to channel and control the flow of water so its energy could be used more efficiently. Water turned the waterwheel which powered the bellows of the first furnace.
- FURN_080128_088.JPG: Raceway and dam were out there
- FURN_080128_093.JPG: Bowstring Arch Bridge
- FURN_080128_098.JPG: Bowstring Arch Bridge (4)
Originally spanning Big Pipe Creek in Detour, Carroll County, Maryland, this Bowstring Arch Truss Bridge, circa 1872, was reduced in width and moved to its present site over Little Hunting Creek. Patented in the early 1840s by internationally known inventor Squire Whipple, the truss bridge was important to the industry and economics of young America. Borrowing their form from earlier wooden structures, the double iron was less susceptible to damage and wear from the elements. The prefabricated bridges were erected across rural America and many still span waterways.
Truss bridges depend on compression and tension for support against the forces of gravity. The arch itself is under compression and tends to be pushed together by forces acting on it. The thinner diagonal and vertical braces are subject to tension and help support the deck and arch of the bridge.
- FURN_080128_114.JPG: Slag heaps
- FURN_080128_117.JPG: Slag Heaps (3)
The mounds you see around you are the furnace's waste product -- slag. When iron ore is superheated in the furnace and fluxed with limestone, the molten iron sinks and impurities rise. Skimmed and discarded, the slag hardens into a glassy or airy rock similar so volcanic glass or lava rock.
Slag was removed from the furnace about every six hours and allowed to run onto the ground to harden. The large pieces were later broken and loaded into wagons for removal. Slag disposal became such a problem that slag was used everywhere to fill holes and finally just piled in heaps near the furnace.
- FURN_080128_147.JPG: Second Growth Forest (2)
Look about you and notice the trees. How old are the trees in the park? Most of the trees on the mountain are less than 100 years old. The iron furnace used charcoal as a heat source. Wood made into charcoal was the only energy source known at that time which could provide enough heat to melt the iron ore.
Clear-cutting the forest to feed the furnace fire was devastating. One acre of wood was needed to provide the charcoal used to heat the furnace for every 24 hours of operation. Colliers lived in huts close to the charcoal hearths are made charcoal from May through October. Smoke from these fires covered the mountain in a thick blue cloud during the charcoal making process. Twelve of 20 foot circular depressions which can be seen in Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park are remnants of these hearths.
During the last days of the furnace, coke made from anthracite (hard coal) replaced charcoal as fuel for iron smelting. Nature would begin the healing process of reforestation. Slowly, new growth began on the mountain in a successional series. In the first four years grasses and non-woody herbs grew. Woody shrubs and quick growing trees such as Staghorn Sumar, Red Maple, and Black Locust later appeared. A few years later, Poplar, Beech, and other Maples invaded. Finally, Oaks and Hickories evolved as the climax stage of ecological succession.
Today, the trees in the park are protected and provided abundant food and shelter for wildlife such as deer, wild turkey, fox squirrel, and grouse. In addition, the forest is a watershed which helps to clean water for drinking, clear the air of pollution, produce oxygen, prevent soil erosion, and cool the air.
- FURN_080128_150.JPG: Second growth forest
- FURN_080128_153.JPG: Little Hunting Creek (1)
Most early industries used water to power simple machinery. Little Hunting Creek provided Catoctin Furnace was the renewable energy needed to power the waterwheel of the first furnace. The wheel's power pumped the furnace bellows creating a blast of air that kept the smelting fire at the very high temperature (around 3000 degrees Fahrenheit) needed to melt the ore. Later bellows were steam driven.
The Johnson Brothers dammed and redirected some of the creek. Water flow could be controlled and released with more energy down stone and earthen raceways. Other small industries, such as a grist mill, also used water power with Little Hunting Creek.
- FURN_080128_157.JPG: Little Hunting Creek
- Wikipedia Description: Catoctin Furnace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Catoctin Furnace (also known as Catoctin Iron Furnace) was constructed in 1774 by four brothers Thomas, Baker, Roger and James Johnson to produce pig iron from locally mined hematite. In blast by 1776, the furnace provided ammunition (cannon balls) for the American Revolution. Some sources state that it also provided cannon. They also state that iron from this furnace was (much later of course) used to make plates for the USS Monitor; however that is considered unlikely by researchers. The Johnson brothers owned the furnaces at the site at first collectively, and after 1793 singly, until 1811.
Ultimately, three furnaces were built at the site, each named for the site. The first Catoctin Furnace was rebuilt a short distance away in 1787. The second, named Isabella was built in the 1850s by Jacob Kunkel (references give dates from 1853 to 1867). It still stands, within Cunningham Falls State Park.
The first two furnaces burned charcoal. The third, which opened in 1873, burned coke (some sources say anthracite coal, though this would be more costly). The entire complex closed in 1903 (attributed to rising costs and too-late introduction of a rail link).
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