Catharine Furnace

Catharine Furnace, built in 1837, closed a decade later but was revived to meet the Confederacy’s wartime need for iron. Union cavalrymen under General George A. Custer destroyed it in 1864, but it was rebuilt and continued producing iron for the Confederacy until 1865, becoming the last of the region’s several major operations to close. During its years of operation, it included many buildings and employed dozens of laborers who cut and hauled wood, excavated iron ore and lime, operated the furnace, hauled finished iron to market, and cultivated land previously cleared of timber when furnace work did not require them. Iron-making there required iron ore, limestone, charcoal, and a source of power; fueled by charcoal and fanned by a bellows, the furnace reached temperatures above 2,800 degrees, ore was dumped onto the fire, lime was added to draw impurities from the molten iron, the melted iron and lime ran from the bottom of the stack, workers skimmed off slag, and the purified iron was channeled into sand molds to form bars known as pigs, which were then sent to a forge elsewhere to be made into pots, kettles, tools, and other useful items.

Lake Wilderness, Virginia · United States