For 6 to 9 months a year, the Iron Furnace was in blast, and the quiet hills came alive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the sounds of axes and picks, horses and wagons, and the shouts of hardworking men. The blast furnace required large quantities of locally harvested raw materials—charcoal, limestone, and iron ore—and roads and trails crossed the hills and creeks like spokes on a wheel, all leading to the site of the Iron Furnace village. Every hour, fillers hauled 74 bushels of charcoal, 500 pounds of limestone, and 1,500 pounds of iron ore across the bridge and into the furnace, which yielded 9 tons of pig iron every 24 hours.