Laurel Hill Iron Furnace was built in 1846 by Hezekiah Reed, Gallagher, and Hale and operated until 1855. Before the Civil War, America’s iron industry was characterized by numerous small producers scattered throughout the country, and at one time Ligonier Valley had nine iron furnaces. The area had the resources needed to make iron, including deposits of iron ore, limestone, oak forests for charcoal, and water power. The furnace’s major product was pig iron, later converted into other products elsewhere, but it also cast hollow and flatware such as pots, pans, kettles, bells, weathervanes, stoves, and horse shoes in various sizes. An ironworker called a potter carried molds from furnace to furnace and cast enough items at each site to meet local demand. To start the furnace, the stack was filled with charcoal from the charging bridge and lighted from the top; after this burned several days, it was refilled with charcoal, and once iron ore and limestone were added to the tunnel head in increasing quantities, a water wheel activated large bellows to apply an airblast. The water system that powered these bellows included a 500 foot tunnel connected to a dam on Baldwin Run. As the blast continued, slag and molten iron ran into the hearth, the slag was periodically drawn off, and molten iron flowed into molds in the casting house, where the resemblance of the molds to suckling pigs gave pig iron its name. The blast furnace was intended to operate day and night with continual additions of fuel, iron ore, and limestone to maintain production. It boosted the local economy by employing 15 to 20 men in 12 hour shifts around the clock and creating an additional 40 to 50 support jobs to cut wood for charcoal, haul ore and limestone, and move the finished product. Local furnaces declined during the Civil War as growth in the railroad industry allowed iron production to be centralized in big cities.