Franklin Furnace began before the Revolutionary War making iron from ore mined near Franklin Pond. An iron furnace stood here from about 1765 to 1895. It began as a water-powered charcoal forge along the Wallkill River. The site later housed a coal-fired forge and foundry that included what was reported to be among the largest blast furnaces in the nation during the 1870s. Franklin was known as the Model Mining Town of the East. Franklin has one of the largest zinc ore bodies on earth, and Franklin Borough is known as the Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World.