A road built more than 230 years ago linked the ironworks at Long Pond and Ringwood Manor, five miles apart, while ironmaster Peter Hasenclever operated both sites. He began building Long Pond in 1766, and the road was likely built soon afterward; it existed by the 1770s and appeared on maps drawn by Robert Erskine. When the ironworks were active, people traveled this route on foot and horseback between the two ironworks and Peter’s Mine, and the surrounding area also supported farms, charcoal making, and mining operations. At Long Pond, Peter Hasenclever built a charcoal iron furnace in 1766. Its casting house stood on foundation remains to the left, the bellows were on the opposite side of the furnace remains, and the waterwheel stood to the right. A charging bridge ran from the hill behind the furnace to the top of the twenty-five foot stack, carrying iron ore, charcoal, and limestone into the furnace. Forced air from bellows, driven by a cam shaft turned by a waterwheel powered by water from a raceway beginning up the Wanaque River, raised the temperature inside. When the ore had melted enough for casting, molten iron was tapped from the furnace and run into a prepared sand bed, often in a mold pattern that resembled a sow feeding piglets, giving rise to the term pig iron. The cast iron was then taken to a forge or foundry for further working into wrought iron products.
