Name/Title
S16.03.073Description
The Vesuvius Furnace is at the southeast end of Lake Vesuvius in the Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area of the Wayne National Forest, Lawrence County, Ohio. The furnace was named after the Mount Vesuvius volcano in Italy. The furnace was built in 1833 to supply iron to steel manufacturers in northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the nation. It produced 3,000 tons of pig iron, made from iron ore and limestone, per year. The supply of iron ore diminished by the end of the nineteenth century and the furnace was abandoned in 1906. The furnace was one 46 charcoal iron furnaces located in the Hanging Rock Iron Region of southern Ohio.
REVIEW
Bedrock is from the Pennsylvanian Geologic Period.
Text for the background information above comes from The Hanging Rock Iron Region on Remarkable Ohio, (Ohio History Connection, Historical Marker website for marker #1-44) and text on the marker placed by the Friends of Freedom Ohio Underground Railroad Association: Vesuvius Iron Furnace is one of 69 charcoal iron furnaces in the Hanging Rock Iron Region. This 100-mile long region extends from Greenup County, Kentucky to Hocking County, Ohio. Built in 1833, Vesuvius began production using the cold blast method to produce iron. in 1863, this furnace was the first to experiment and adopt the revolutionary hot blast method. Vesuvius Furnace produced 10 tons of iron each day until its final blast in 1906. Today only this stack remains, but in its prime Vesuvius Furnace supported hundreds of workers and their families and played a key role int eh early iron industry. The men who owned the furnaces were called ironmasters and many played another significant role in history. Many of them were strong abolitionists and supported the Underground Railroad. The furnace complexes provided safe houses and money for the movement of slaves seeking freedom. The secret routes that the runaway slaves followed lie along the same roads as southern Ohio's iron furnaces. With the help of ironmasters, other families and supporters of the Underground Railroad, hundreds of escaped slaves reached their ultimate goal: Freedom.
This slide image included in the USGS National Digital Catalog for NGGDPP Grant G15AP00115 in FY2015.Context
Trapezoid shaped furnace built out of rock. Vesuvius Furnace at Wayne Forest in Lawrence County,Ohio.