Buckeye Furnace State Memorial

Here and there among the hills and hollows of Southern Ohio, the skeletal remains of a once-thriving charcoal iron industry stand as mute testimony to a time gone by: an era which came and went leaving few reminders of its presence.

It was a boom or bust industry in which record profits were as commonplace as bankruptcy. During the good years, dozens of crossroads villages sprouted up around the blast furnaces of the Hanging Rock Iron Region and, for a time, Ohio was the second largest producer of iron in the nation. The Hanging Rock furnaces answered a young nation's demand for iron to build railroads, farm equipment and the machinery of mass production. When the Civil War came, iron from Ohio furnaces was cast into cannons. Workers from Jefferson Furnace long boosted that they had cast the iron that sheathed the warship Monitor.

It was during the heyday of the charcoal iron furnace that Buckeye Furnace was built, one of 80 furnaces that dotted the 100-mile long, 30-mile wide ore-rich belt of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky known as the Hanging Rock Iron Region. The furnace, constructed in 1851 of native sandstone block, employed as many as 100 men and used 50 teams of oxen. It produced a maximum of 12 tons of iron per day.

The method by which Buckeye and similar furnaces produced iron was fairly simple. Charcoal, the fuel used to smelt the iron, was combined with iron ore and limestone and placed in the top of the furnace. As this mixture, called the 'burden' was dumped into the already hot furnace, the charcoal ignited. Using a steady blast of hot air to intensify the heat, the ore and limestone were melted and the mass slowly descended to the bottom of the stack.

The impurities were trapped in the molten limestone, called flux. When removed from the furnace and cooled, the flux formed a glass-like waste product called slag. Because it was heavier than the flux, the molten iron collected at the bottom of the furnace. After a sufficient amount of iron collected, workers removed the dam stone from the furnace opening and the molten iron flowed into sand molds that shaped them into ingots. These ingots were known as pigs. The process was a continuous one. Burden was added about every half hour, and iron was tapped several times during the 24-hour working day.

All of the materials needed to make iron were readily at hand throughout the Hanging Rock Region. Large deposits of iron ore and limestone were just beneath the surface of the soil and the stands of timber provided an abundant source of wood for charcoal. The furnaces consumed staggering quantities of these raw materials. During one year's production, Buckeye Furnace required 12,000 cords of wood, 8,000 tons of iron ore and 400 tons of limestone.

The laborers who worked the furnaces seven days a week, nine months a year, often received no more than 65 cents for a 12-hour day. Ore diggers were paid one dollar per ton of ore delivered to the furnace, while woodcutters were allowed 25 cents for each cord of wood. Instead of cash, workers were frequently paid in scrip, a sort of quasicurrency issued by the company store.

Because the company stores operated on very high profit margins, furnace workers were continually indebted to them. The problem of low wages was compounded by the fact that the industry was one of fluctuating fortune which at best provided seasonal work and often shut down altogether stranding hundreds of laborers.

Like most 19th century industrial jobs, furnace work was both exhausting and hazardous. The tremendous heat, the noxious gasses and the ever present threat of boiler explosion all exacted a great toll. Injuries and job-induced illnesses were common.

As the end of the 19th century approached, the Hanging Rock iron industry quickly began to fade. The development of ore fields in Missouri and more importantly, the Lake Superior region, hastened the end of iron production. Bigger furnaces capable of producing greater quantities of iron more efficiently were being built. Larger companies with more investment capital were willing and able to undertake the construction of these new furnaces. One by one, the fires of the old furnaces were extinguished for the last time, leaving behind withering company towns, abandoned by jobless families.

Today, the restored Buckeye Furnace features the original furnace that went out of blast for the last time in 1894. The furnace is typical of the scores of charcoal iron producers that were scattered through the region in the 19th century. Attached to the front of the furnace is a casting shed, where the molten iron flowed into ingot molds. The reconstructed charging house and engine house serve as display areas.

Adjacent to the parking area, the visitor will find a replica of the company store and office, which today serve as an information and exhibit area. A picnic area is located 1/4 mile northeast of the site at the intersection of Township Road 167 and County Road 58. Between the furnace and the picnic area are two nature trails, one of which runs along the abandoned ore pits and roads once used by Buckeye Furnace laborers.

To visit Buckeye Furnace from Columbus, take State Route 35 south to Route 124 (also marked as 346). Travel east on Route 124 to County Road 58; go south on 58 to Township Road 167 and southwest to Buckeye Furnace. Directions to Buckeye Furnace are indicated by road signs.

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(The above info is from a brochure given out at the furnace.)