Information about the Buckhorn Iron and Peter Tarr Furnaces has been moved to here.
The furnace itself would be the tall structure with the chimney.
 |
| Mike Bernard commented on a post Cornwall Furnace in south central Pa. The only totally complete charcoal furnace anywhere. Worth the visit. (I’m biased as I’m a tour guide here!) Mark Bidoli: Mike Bernard isn’t Hopewell Village complete? Mike Bernard: Mark Bidoli Hopewell is an amazing site and only a few miles from where I grew up. However, as is typical with 18th century era furnaces it required restoration of almost all of its buildings. Cornwall, probably because of the success and extreme wealth of the owning Coleman family was lucky enough to undergo a complete housing of its facilities not that many years prior to final blast. And with the same family heirs donating to the state in 1930s it could not have been better circumstances. They basically locked the doors in 1883 and reopened in 1933 with no changes. And it didn’t hurt that most of the wealth was generated in later years by massive ore sales of the Cornwall ore banks as opposed to the limited output of pig iron from the charcoal furnace. |
 |
| Bill Gailey posted Cornwall Iron Furnace — 1742 Site Name: Cornwall Iron Furnace Location: Cornwall, Lebanon County Dates of Operation: 1742 to 1883 Owners: Peter Grubb and sons; Robert Coleman Historical Significance: Cornwall Iron Furnace, a National Historic Landmark, is the most fully intact and best preserved example of a 19th-century charcoal fueled blast furnace in Pennsylvania. Robert Coleman was one of Pennsylvania’s first millionaires. Cornwall was representative of Pennsylvania’s 18th and 19th century iron plantations, where villages, stores, schools, churches, and more developed around a successful furnace. Randy Wilson: Proximity to Cornwall was one of the primary reasons they built America's first steel plant in Steelton, Dauphin County. Thanks for posting this picture and data ! |
The open pit mine is now filled with water.
 |
| Satellite |
"Cornwall Ore Banks was one of the world’s greatest iron ore deposits. More than 100 million tons were extracted between 1730 and 1973. The depth of the open pit reached five hundred feet below the surface. The open pit mine can be viewed from Boyd Street." [CornwallIronFurnace-sitemap]
Since it was operational until 1973 and 500' deep, I looked for a topo map. The furnace buildings are the four contiguous rectangles near the upper middle of this extract.
 |
| 1955 Lebanon Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
It looks like the operation quit digging deeper and started removing the sides of some of the mountains. We also see that they built a conveyor to a load-out facility on the east side. A 1995 topo shows a lake instead of the pit.
 |
| 1984 Lebanon Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
There are still "land scars" where they removed some of the mountains.
 |
| Satellite |
 |
| Remembering Bethlehem Mines posted Cornwall James Torgeson posted Mining iron ore with a steam shovel in Cornwall, PA. The single car ore train is also steam powered. |
Robert Wanner posted two photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel Co. Cornwall Iron pits in 1949. Huge operation supporting the Cornwall Railroad to move the raw ore to Lebanon, Pa. for refining by crossing the Reading Company near the 15th Street RDG yard and JU Tower to reach the cindering plant. Hope I have all this correct, only from memory. Phots by Paul Hartline."
James Torgeson shared with the comment: "More Cornwall Railroad, which was a Bethlehem Steel Subsidiary Railroad."
Robert Davenport: Sintering? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintering
Pat Palumbo: Iron Valley Golf Course is located on top of the tailing pile and on top of the deep mine. Mine was closed in 1973 due to hurricane Agnes. All the equipment is still in the mine, under water.
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
The main purpose of these notes is to save the link to Arther's post. The comments provide a list of some of the old blast furnaces in the US. I picked the comments concerning the Cornwall Furnace as the focus because it was quite impressive. Normally, only the stone furnace itself remains. For example:
 |
| Arthur Godfrey posted How it all started. Western Pennsylvania Eliza Furnace was constructed in 1845 and 1846. At its peak, the furnace employed over 90 people In the early 20th Century and utilized 45 mules to produce about 1,080 tons of iron a year. It's not the first but one of many in this area. Steve Rowan: Don’t forget Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts, it dates back to the 1600s. If you’re ever in Boston it’s worth checking out. [The comments document several other old blast furnaces.] |
 |
| Greg Cadman commented on Aurthur's post [Note that this is a Ohio marker. But the only Hopewell Furnace that I could find was in PA. I presume they converted coal to coke before adding it to the furnace. Abraham Darby developed the use of coke in 1709. [britannica] (Abraham Darby III built the pioneer iron bridge over River Severn.)] |
.jpg) |
| Cornwall Iron Furnace posted At 3 pm on June 30, 1973 the last truckload of Cornwall Ore departed the mines closing 236 years of iron mining in Cornwall, Pennsylvania. [Photo taken in 1949.] If you missed the commemoration event last week (June 17th) it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxzaQwu-uE&t=5s Mining continued for just over a year after Hurricane Agnes. James Torgeson shared Clyde McGeary: That truck dump reminds me of Hempt Bros in Steelton ( which was an old Bethlehem limestone mine). None of the haul trucks had hydraulics. All were Dart/Kenworth tractors with side dump trailers that were hoisted by a cable system. The S&H Railroad ran over Rt 230 to the slag dump with the typical pots hoisted by a crane setup and a skull knocker. |
 |
| The above linked video @ 1:00:27 |
No comments:
Post a Comment