In 1810 Irish immigrant Roland Curtin Sr. and Cumberland County native Moses Boggs established Eagle Forge near Philip Antes' grist-and-lumber mills on Bald Eagle Creek, three miles downstream from Milesburg. In 1818 Curtin became sole proprietor, then built Eagle Furnace and a workers village near iron ore deposits one mile south of the forge, where a new road between Eagle Forge and Milesburg crossed Antes Run, now Nittany Creek. In 1825 he acquired Philip Antes' adjoining mill tract and built a four-story stone gristmill and several one-story log houses for employees and their families. In 1830-31 Curtin oversaw construction of the three-story ironmaster's residence later known as Curtin Mansion, which became the center of Curtin Village, Eagle Iron Works, and the 900-acre Eagle Iron plantation. By the mid-1830s Curtin Village had a company store, an eight-grade public school, and a Methodist church. Completion of the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation to Eagle Iron Works in 1839 improved the movement of materials, products, and people. Roland Curtin retired to Bellefonte in 1844 and turned the business over to his sons, who in 1848 built Pleasant Furnace south of Eagle Forge to replace the defunct Eagle Furnace; it became known as Eagle Furnace and served as the works' only functioning furnace. By 1850 the village had more than 200 residents in 28 households, with 39 men and boys employed in ironworking and related trades. In 1864 the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad passed through Curtin Village, where passenger and freight depots at Curtin Road formed Curtin Station, and in 1867 a post office named Roland opened in a new company store nearby. Growing debt and declining demand for charcoal iron forced third-generation ironmaster Henry Roland Curtin to suspend operations in 1889, but in 1899 he and investors reopened the works on a limited scale. After Harry Curtin died in 1909, his son Hugh Laird Curtin Sr. became the last ironmaster. Curtin Station closed in 1921, and after fire destroyed Eagle Furnace's wooden superstructure in May 1921, iron production halted; Eagle Forge processed its last pig iron stockpile and shut down early in 1922. Eagle Iron Works thus became Pennsylvania's longest-lived and last operating charcoal iron works. The village post office closed in 1935, and in 1951 Thomazine Potter Curtin left Curtin Mansion, ending 120 years of occupation by five generations of Curtins. In the 1960s and 1970s Curtin heirs conveyed the core property to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for museum use, restoration proceeded under the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with support from the Roland Curtin Foundation, public tours began in 1974, and the replicated Eagle Furnace opened in 1978.