Katahdin Iron Works

Katahdin Iron Works

Katahdin Iron Works is a Maine state historic site located in the unorganized township of the same name. The state's property contains Gulf Hagas, a canyon on the West Branch of the Pleasant River that is a National Natural Landmark. About a mile and a half downriver is another national landmark, "The Hermitage", a roughly-35-acre grove of large Eastern White Pine trees that is preserved by The Nature Conservancy. In 2003, the Appalachian Mountain Club acquired a 37,000-acre property upriver from Gulf Hagas that it named Katahdin Iron Works.

In 1843, a limonite gossan, a form of iron ore, was discovered on nearby Ore Mountain. The gossan was the primary source of mined ore. It overlaid a pyrrhotite deposit of iron sulfide ore. Assuming the depth matches the known surface area, this deposit would be among the world's largest sulfide deposits. However, the rural location and poor quality of the ore continues to make it uneconomic to mine.

Operating for 25 years intermittently between 1843 and 1890, a blast furnace iron mill located where the West Branch of the Pleasant River flows out of Silver Lake was the most significant iron works in the state. The mill converted 10,000 cords of wood to charcoal in sixteen beehives, which was used to fire the furnace and produce about 2,000 tons of pig iron annually. It failed economically when steel mills that delivered the pig iron directly to the steel furnaces were developed because it was a small scale, operation in a location remote from both workers and customers. The state has restored the blast furnace and one of the beehive charcoal kilns; these and some of the foundations for other buildings are all that remain of the mill and village.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katahdin_Iron_Works

http://people.maine.com/publius/almanac/encycweb/htm/katahdiw.htm

Nice pictures! I have never seen this before. Thanks!

I drove a van full of kids down that road this past summer. It's a very very long road. It has changed a lot since our last visit five years ago. There is an admission if anyone wants to go any further than this furnace. Beyond this area is camping and hiking.

To be very honest, I've never seen this place. But, now that I know it's there, I will have to make a trip up to see it. I love the history behind it.