One-half mile east of Valley Forge on Doe River are the ruins of an iron furnace built in 1820 by William B. Carter of Elizabethton. It was purchased in 1824 by James, John, and Joseph O'Brien and William Gott. They owned 9000 acres of land and operated the furnace, the Valley Forge, 2 bloomeries and a water-driven hammer. With slave labor they produced pig and bar iron until they sold their holdings to Nathaniel G. Taylor in 1861.