Four Westmoreland County Iron Furnaces

Today was a great day to get out and do some pre-coke oven season exploring. Summer is gone and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. I spent a lot of time researching plenty of coke sites, so this is definitely going to be a very busy year. There's a lot left out there. Today I focused on some of these iron furnaces I was looking into and went to check them out. It was a great afternoon to spend in the mountains. The first three of these furnaces are located around New Florence and the last (and my personal favorite) is south of Laughlintown. Dates of construction range from 1810 to 1850 presumably, information on these sites is sketchy at best and it seems like nobody agrees on anything. The majority of the information I am using is from the 1966 book "A Guide To The Old Stone Blast Furnaces In Western Pennsylvania" by Myron B. Sharp and William H. Thomas. The two sites that have been restored have signs describing the history of the furnaces. For these sites I am using the information from the signs. I figure if they took the time and resources to restore these massive furnaces, they probably did a substantial amount of research on their history. 

 

 

Baldwin Furnace

 

The Baldwin Furnace is located in State Games Lands #42 in St. Clair Township. This is the earliest of the four. According to the book, Baldwin Furnace was constructed in 1810 by James Stewart and Henry Baldwin and was only in blast for a short time. It was a charcoal fueled furnace and I found slag laying around that still had charcoal and iron in it. That's it for information on this furnace.

 

 

A short walk up this road leads you to the furnace site.

Approaching Baldwin Furnace.

As you can see, the back side of it is in pretty bad shape.

Climbing down the hill to the furnace behind this retaining wall. I am assuming it's been rebuilt. The game commission keeps this area cleared of brush which is one of the main reasons this furnace is still standing.

The side of the furnace.

Looking inside the side arch.

The front and side arches.

The stonework is amazing.

The intricate detail of the stonework done 206 years ago.

Engravings in a tree from previous visitors.

Again. The stonework. I wasn't able to locate any mason marks in the stone and it's almost certain the names of the craftsmen are lost to time.

The other side of the furnace. This side also contains remnants of what could have been the race to turn the water wheel and operate the bellows to blast the furnace.

Possible race.

It heads down toward Baldwin Run.

Baldwin Run.

More cut stone near what may have been the race.

Some of the furnace slag.

A final look at Baldwin Furnace.

 

 

 

Laurel Hill Furnace 

 

 

Laurel Hill Furnace is located close to Baldwin Furnace but it's off state game lands. It is located conveniently on Furnace Lane outside of New Florence. This is one of the furnaces that has been preserved and is currently under the supervision of the National Park Service. According to the book, this furnace was built during 1845-46 by Hezekiah Reed, Gallagher and Hale. It was later owned by Judge J.T. Hall of Centre County. This furnace operated until 1855.

 

 

 

Laurel Hill Furnace.

The informational sign at the site. The information on this sign is identical to that in the book.

What I love about these furnaces is that they're all unique. They all served the same function but none of them look the same. Some have these massive arches and others have openings that come to points. The arches are 12 feet high. Another unique feature of this furnace is that all four sides have arches.

A look inside the front arch. Three iron bars support the structure.

Looking up the stack.

Slag coated on the brickwork of the stack.

I'm guessing this is the hole where the molten iron flowed from.

Inside the furnace.

This masonry work is still incredible but it's not as tight as Baldwin Furnace.

The arches on the other hand.....

The whole furnace is fastened together with these tie rods.

From inside the furnace. Probably where the molten iron flowed out.

A final look at Laurel Hill Furnace.

 

 

 

Ross Furnace

 

 

This was the trickiest one to get to. It is located on a golf course in the Ross Mountain Club, a country club. I am not a country club kinda guy (picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack). The area is heavily posted with Members Only signs so I did the only thing a fella in my situation could do. I snuck in. It was successful, I got my photos and got out. According to the book, Ross Furnace was constructed in 1815 by James Paull, J.D. Mathiot and Isaac Meason. This furnace was in blast until at least 1850. Aside from making the usual pig iron, Ross Furnace also produced pig iron stoves, sugar kettles, pots, ovens, skillets etc.

Meason is a huge name in local industrial history. He was the first man to make a fortune west of the Alleghenies in the iron business. Most of his interests were in Dunbar, Fayette County including his Union Furnace on Dunbar Creek which was producing iron by 1791. By 1788 he owned thousands of acres of land and was the wealthiest man in Fayette County. 

 

 

 

It's a shame it's hidden on a golf course but they seem to be taking great care of it.

The inside of these arches is different from the others.

Looking up the stack. It's all cleaned up. It looks like it's coated with concrete.

More heavy iron supports.

This furnace has both arches and points. This is the back side facing the golf course.

Tight corners.

Incredible stonework.

Detail of the arch.

Final look at Ross Furnace.

 

 

California Furnace

 

 

This was my favorite location from today. The book says the furnace was constructed in 1853, the sign says 1850 and the 1994 inventory of historic engineering and industrial sites says 1852. What they all agree on is the furnace was built by Col. J.D. Mathiot and Dr. S.P. Cummings. This is the second time Mathiot has popped up but the first time he's listed as a Colonel. The furnace is located on the old Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Turnpike along Furnace Run. Furnace Run was known as California Run at the time. California Furnace was later sold to Alexander Cavat, who supposedly invested a fortune into it but didn't see a profitable return. The furnace went out of blast 1862. In 1966 Gen. Richard K. and Constance Prosser Mellon restored the furnace.

 

 

To get to California Furnace you get to cross this covered bridge.

It is called the Naugle Bridge. I haven't been able to find a construction date.

If you're too heavy, you have to go through the creek.

Furnace Run, Google Maps calls it Rolling Rock Creek.

The sign that is at the furnace.

Diagram showing the operation of iron furnaces.

California Furnace.

Incredible.

This ring is leaning against the back of the furnace.

This is on the left side of the furnace in an arch. Adjacent to this is the race where the water wheel went so this would probably be where the bellows blasted the furnace.

Looking toward the race.

Looking up from where the water wheel sat.

Looking through the race.

Down where the water wheel sat. Another one of those rings is also done here.

This is under a small plank bridge on the left side of the furnace.

Looking up at the arch.

The plank bridge from the top.

The front and the left side where all the other stuff is.

Inside the front arch.

Looking up the point.

Foot bridge over the creek.

Heading back out over Naugle Bridge.

 

 

Jacob Davies Mathiot

 

 

I was able to locate the following information on Col. J.D. Mathiot. 

 

 

 

 

Youghiogheny River - Whitsett to West Newton

Today was a great day to rent a kayak, get out on the river, and see what we could find. This was a very busy section of the river as far as coal mining and I always figured there would be a lot to discover from the river itself. I was right. 

We started off at Whitsett, where I had explored the Anica Coke Works late last year. 

In the river off of Whitsett.

Soon we were coming up to the current Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad bridge.

Approaching the W&LE RR bridge.

Immediately after the bridge is the first of today's industrial artifacts. 

I couldn't find anything on the mine maps identifying this structure. It's very similar to structures located across the river at the old ruins of the Banning No. 1 mine. I did find it on the 1939 aerial photo of the area. It was definitely part of something larger as the structure did cross the tracks. 

The 1939 aerial showing the structure as well as the mine across the river.

The river side of the Banning No. 1 coal storage silo. Also a couple new friends I made today!!

Heading downriver. Approaching the confluence of Jacobs Creek and the Youghiogheny.

The CSX Railroad bridge crossing the mouth of Jacobs Creek.

This is heading behind a small island on the river. It was pretty shallow but I managed to get through. There are a handful of these along the river.

Heading out of there we see the slate dump for the Banning mine across the river.

Next, heading down river we are approaching the town of Van Meter. On December 19, 1907, the worst mining disaster in the history of Pennsylvania occurred here. The Darr Mine explosion killed at least 239 men and boys. One of the most detailed reports available online can be found here. Many of the miners lived in the town of Jacobs Creek, located across the river from Van Meter. The miners traveled to work on the other side of the river via a sky ferry, a basket guided across the river by a steel cable, like a cable car. 

A portion of the Darr Mine map showing the ferry cable.

An old photo showing the sky ferry. (Photo courtesy of http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/darr.html )

The cable is still there. Everything else relating to the Darr is gone except for a couple foundations and the location of the main portal (which was recently resealed). I thought initially they were power or telephone cables but after looking further into it, the cables are simply stretched between two poles and connect to nothing. They are located precisely where the mine map has them placed.

The cables.

This is the pole on the Jacobs Creek side. As you can see, the cables are just secured into the ground.

Van Meter.

Next up is Smithton. 

Slightly upriver from Smithton. Between Jacobs Creek Road and the railroad tracks are the coke ovens that I haven't been able to name.

The Rt. 981 bridge over the river. I wanted to stop and look at the piers but the water moves pretty fast under the bridge.

Up next is the Interstate 70 bridge.

Beyond this was Smithton Beach which was very jumping today. A little too jumping. I wasn't stopping for photos. After this was Fitz Henry, where I was hoping to see something but didn't. Following Fitz Henry was Cedar Creek County Park on the left and then Reduction.

CSX train going through Fitz Henry.

In Reduction is a very interesting structure. It looks like a pump station building to me but that could easily be wrong. It doesn't show up on the mine maps of the Reduction Mine but it is located right at the point on the map that shows the Flinn Garbage Plant right at the Reduction Station platform. I can find nothing on the Flinn Garbage Plant. I don't know if the garbage plant is just printed on the old mine map where the mine buildings used to be or if it's its own thing. Regardless it's a very interesting structure.

The mine map superimposed over a satellite view. The building along the river is shown at the top left. As you can see, it is not listed on the map.

And here is the building:

This is the side of the building facing the river.

The right side.

The left side with hardware on the doorway.

There was no way for me to climb inside the building.

An old tie plate laying outside of the building.

After this the kayak I rented, which they named "Old Yeller", sprung a leak. The last two miles were spent pulling over and emptying the kayak. I wasn't able to take anymore photos but this was really the extent of it as far as artifacts along the river. Everything downstream to West Newton can be seen from the Great Allegheny Passage.