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SIGHTS IN BASYE, VIRGINIA
I haven't been able to find out the name of this old iron furnace, which sits on a small creek on Route 717 (Alum Springs Road) in Basye near our property. Below is a link to a great site which describes the hard work involved in the making of the first pig iron and how it got it's name. As I find out more about this particular furnace, I will update this area. We also live near Columbia Furnace and Liberty Furnace in Woodstock, Virginia.
Today’s ‘furnace’ crossroads were once thriving
industrial communities by Peggy Boston, Bryce Mountain Courier
Spring. In the Shenandoah Valley. Finally.
This year, perhaps more than ever, it wasn’t clear if
it would ever arrive. Spring temperatures were here in January, then
quickly disappeared in February. The Vernal Equinox came on March 20
with spring-like 70s on one side and wintery 30s on the other.
But as always, a sure sign that the weather has finally
turned for good is the heathery lavender of the trees covering the
mountains that define the Valley.
Viewed from a drive along I-81, the hills of
Massanutten and Great North in early spring lose their sharp edges and
appear almost moss covered, soft and hazy. A closer look from Rts. 11
or 42, or especially a trip along back roads closer to the mountains,
makes it clear that our rich forests are in bud, soon to once again
become lush with green leaves.
Spring in the Valley, 19th Century style
Flashback. It’s the spring of 1836 in Shenandoah County. A horseback
or carriage ride on the Valley Pike gives you views of barren
mountains, with some sapling re-growth beginning to show. The trees
are being clear-cut, and have been since the Revolutionary War, to
make charcoal to fuel the iron ore furnaces that are a major industry
in the Valley.
By May, the scenery will also include black smoke from the half dozen
or so furnaces in the area that will operate 24 hours a day through
the smelting season until early September. The communities that have
grown up around the furnaces bring a lot of activity to the county,
including a cacophony of sound … the almost ceaseless chopping of
trees (no chain saws here), pick ax and shovel against mountain rock
to dig out iron ore, mules and oxen pulling wagons loaded with wood or
charcoal or ore. The fiery blast of the furnaces themselves, as they
swallow tons of charcoal and limestone and ore, and spit out tons of
molten iron.
History of Shenandoah County’s six furnaces
Anyone who has taken the time to drive the county roads knows there is
a history of some kind of furnaces in Shenandoah County. Just read the
road signs. Columbia Furnace, Liberty Furnace, Caroline and Elizabeth
and Henrietta Furnaces, Van Buren Furnace.
And there are many written accounts of the iron ore industry in the
area from the 1760s through around 1905. The stories, however, have
conflicting dates by a year or more, and varying tales of who burned
or destroyed what and when. So, though this information comes from
excellent sources and sometimes original records from the iron
companies, you will see a lot of “abouts,” “averages” and “probablys”
in dates and other figures.
Who were these iron merchants and what brought them to this quiet,
agricultural valley?
Most were Pennsylvanians who operated successful iron manufacturing
companies using ores from the Appalachian Mountains to our north.
Reports of a rich source of iron ore in the Shenandoah Valley
attracted them to simply follow the mountain chain south, where they
quickly found all the necessary assets for a thriving iron industry:
ore, limestone, water and vast timberlands.
Thomas Jefferson cited five furnaces in Virginia in his 1781 “Notes on
Virginia,” including two in the Valley. But the first furnace built in
Shenandoah County was probably Columbia in 1803 or 04 on Stony Creek
six miles northwest of Edinburg. Records show that it was destroyed
three times by Union troops during the Civil War. Today, there are no
ruins to visit.
Liberty Furnace was built in 1822, several miles up a branch of Stony
Creek west of Columbia. It is said it have been partially burned on
several occasions during the War. Very little remains, and its
location is now on private property.
Caroline, which was burned by Union troops in March 1865, may have
been rebuilt and used again for a few years. It was located along what
is now Rt. 675 just south of Kings Crossing in Fort Valley.
Elizabeth Furnace (1836-1888) was on Passage Creek in Fort Valley,
north of Kings Crossing on Rt. 678. Now totally overgrown, the U.S.
Forest Service has created the “Pig Iron Trail” through the Elizabeth
Furnace Recreation Area to trace the history of iron making for
visitors to the George Washington National Forest. The Forest Service
has nominated it for inclusion on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Van Buren Furnace, just south of Zepp off of Rt. 603, is perhaps the
best preserved of the furnaces, with most of the chimney in tact. It
is posted, on private land between Little North and Great North
mountains. It can easily been seen and photographed from the road so
there is no need to trespass to enjoy this relic.
The remains of Henrietta, or Myers, Furnace is on Rt. 717 (Alum
Springs Road) just a few miles northwest of Basye. One account says it
was destroyed by the Union in 1864 and never rebuilt. It, too, is
posted on private property, but is well worth a look as it has a
near-complete chimney.
Both Van Buren and Henrietta give you a clear idea of how the furnaces
were situated, against a small hill, so that the ore, limestone and
charcoal could easily been dropped down the chimney.
The Forest Service interpretation of Elizabeth Furnace gives a good
picture of community life around the furnaces. The area, colloquially
called an “Iron Plantation,” included a mansion for the “Iron Master,”
cottages for the workers, tool and storage sheds, carpenter and
blacksmith shops, a general store, stable for the mules and oxen, and
a school for the children of the workers. Some historians have likened
this structure to what is known as a company town in latter-day coal
mining regions.
It has been estimated by some furnace historians that as much as
23,000 acres were clear cut over a 30-year period during the height of
the iron industry in Shenandoah County in the mid 1800s. Some examples
of how the wood was gobbled up (a cord = a stack of wood four feet by
four feet by eight feet or 128 cubic feet):
·
3 cords of wood to fire a furnace for 2 hours and produce 1
cubic foot of iron
·
8 cords per 1 ton of pig iron
·
Furnaces ran 24 hours a day for 123 days, May 1 to September 1
·
4,428 cords of wood cut each year to provide the charcoal
This is the yield of about 150 acres of woodland.
Times 6 furnaces equals 900 acres.
Over 30 years before the land could be cut again, equals up to 27,000
acres of forest clear-cut.
The remains of the day
“If you know where to look in the forest today,” said Joe Lehnan, Area
Forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry, “you can see big
circles of left over charcoal. Large black circles covered over by
forest undergrowth.”
Lehnan also pointed out that a walk in the National Forest in this
area can also reveal saucer-like depressions and/or long trenches
where the ore was mined.
“By the early 1900s the forests in this area were clear-cut, with
saplings growing back,” at different rates depending on how long it
had been since the original cut. “The good news is that re-growth
brought back more oak trees than were originally here because they
could get more of the sunlight they like,” Lehnan said.
Lehnan also noted that the forest around Liberty Furnace still reveals
the remains of a small railroad bed, for the so-called “Dinky
Railroad” that carried ore and charcoal from the forest to the
furnace, and on to Edinburg.
John Coleman of Woodstock, a former slkdjflkj asljdf l ljdfl sdf ,
added information about the work done at Union Forge on Stony Creek
between Edinburg and Lantz Mill. “The pig iron was brought to the
forges to be refined into anchonies, large pieces of malleable iron.”
This was done with enormous water-powered hammers operated by very
skilled workers.
Coleman said that the book “Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo
Forge,” noted that the iron company supervisors there preferred slave
laborers because they were far more skilled. They often were paid for
overtime to encourage the best work from them, and many of the slaves
were able to buy their freedom, according to the book.
The anchonies were then further hammered into merchant bars by less
skilled workers, which in turn could be molded into useful iron
products such as pots, kettles, flatirons, anvils, wagon boxes and
many other items. During the Civil War, forges produced weapons and
other strategic materials for the Confederate effort.
Thanks from the Courier to Joe Lehnan, John Coleman and Jean Martin
of the Shenandoah County Library archives for providing information
for this article. Sources include: The Historic Iron and
Charcoaling Industries by the USDA Forest Service; Iron.
County’s furnaces once busy industries, by WM. J. Didawick, July
1976 Shenandoah Valley Herald; and A History of Shenandoah County,
Virginia 1780-1880, by John W. Wayland.
How pig iron was made – Elizabeth Furnace 1836-88
Typical iron furnaces took eight to 12 months to build. They were
roughly 30 feet square and about 30 feet high with inclining sides so
that the top of the furnace was about 20 feet square. The outside was
constructed of stone insulated from the core by mortar, broken stone
and sand. The core was lined with firebrick. They were built along the
side of a hill so that the ore, limestone and charcoal could more
easily be wheeled across a bridge from the hill to be emptied into the
top of the furnace.
1.
Men called fillers carefully measured set quantities of iron
ore, limestone and charcoal, carried them across the wooden bridge,
and dumped them into the furnace in alternate layers. The furnace was
kept filled nearly to the top.
2.
A water wheel and bellows were located to one side of the
furnace. Water diverted from Passage Creek turned the water wheel,
which operated the bellows. The bellows forced heated air into the
furnace, causing the charcoal to burn with a white heat. This extreme
heat (2,000 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit) melted the iron, and it
settled to the bottom of the furnace, called the crucible.
3.
The limestone served as a flux causing the molten iron to
separate from the impurities and flow downward. The waste floated to
the top of the molten iron and flowed out through an opening into a
circular depression dug in the ground. There it cooled into cinder and
slag and was later broken up and carted away. These by-products can
still be found today at furnace sites.
4.
Two or three times a day, a tap-hole was opened and the molten
iron flowed from the furnace into casting beds of sand. The name “pig
iron” may have come from the shape of the casts, which could be seen
as a sow and her litter of suckling pigs. Before the iron became cold,
the pigs were separated from the sow and broken into small pieces for
easier handling.
From a George Washington National Forest, USDA Poster
How charcoal was made
Charcoal was the preferred fuel for the ore furnaces because it is
free of sulphur and its ash lime and alkalis supplied a natural flux
to help separate the iron from the ore. The average furnace used 600
to 800 bushels of charcoal every 24 hours. That translates to an acre
of woodland each day for each furnace.
Hickory was considered the best wood, but any solid trees (no
deadwood) were used.
1. Strips
of land about 20 ax handles wide were assigned to different
woodchoppers. The trees were felled so that the tops would meet along
the dividing line of each man’s area. The trees were then trimmed and
cut into four-foot lengths. It was often chopped in the winter and
stacked in cords until the furnaces were fired up in the spring.
Woodchoppers earned 40 to 50 cents a cord a day and generally could
chop two cords in that time. An experienced man could do five cords a
day. When ready to use, the wood was taken to the hearth on a sled
pulled by mules or horses.
2. Nearby,
a circular area (hearth) 30 to 40 feet in diameter was cleared and
leveled.
3. A
guild pole (fagan) 18 feet long and three or four inches in diameter
was placed upright in the center of the hearth. Then a triangular
chimney was constructed around the fagan using lap wood, one and a
half to four inches in diameter.
4. When
the chimney was five feet high, the four-foot long billets (four to
seven inches in diameter) were set on end against the chimney with
each piece a little further away from the chimney at ground level.
When the first ring was completed additional rings were added until
the circular hearth was covered. Lap wood was used to fill any air
spaces.
5. Next,
the collier (a skilled charcoal maker) climbed on top of the wood
pile, built the chimney up another four feet or so, and set a second
tier of billets and lap wood. This procedure continued until a rounded
structure was formed. The guide pole was removed and smaller wood was
laid horizontally to round off the top. The chimney was filled with
wood chips and fine kindling.
6. The
mound-like woodpile was then covered with leaves and several inches of
charcoal dust left over from previous burnings to make it as airtight
as possible so that the wood would char rather than burn.
7. A
part of the chimney was removed and red-hot coals were shoveled on top
of the kindling. Then, the chimney was re-covered and the top of the
mound was covered by at least a foot of coal dust.
8. During
the 10 days to two weeks it took the wood to char, a rod was used to
punch small draft holes near the base to make the charring uniform on
all sides of the pit. The collier could tell by the color of the smoke
that the charring was completed.
9. Small
portions of charcoal were dug out from the edge of the mound with a
shovel and, little by little, raked into separate rings to cool so
that if one ring burst into flame it would not ignite others. When
there was no longer a threat of fire, the charcoal was loaded on
wagons that held about 200 bushes and hauled by a team of six mules to
the charcoal house where it awaited use in the furnace
WETLANDS TRADING COMPANY Come visit the unique Wetlands Trading Company - Gift and Garden Shop. On Route 263 (Orkney Grade) in Basye, VA. This fun shop is open weekends or by appointment. You will find plants, gifts, woodcrafts, garden accents, mulch, stone, pond supplies and more! Give them a shout at 540.856.2553. Ask to hear the singing bowls when you visit, they are wonderful!
DEAUVILLE DEER FARM
Bowers Buffalo Farm at Jerome photo by Diane Elliott of 2000.shenandoah.com
Liberty Furnace Mill photo by Diane Elliott of 2000.shenandoah.com
Sky Chalet has reopened under new management and with a new face Visit skychalet.com
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