- Joined
- Nov 26, 2010
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hello all,
We got out and about again this weekend, my wife's book (Haunted Estill County) has hit the local scene running and some folks we know asked to see some of the places she talks about. The book was a remarkable way of finding out out a lot about the local history and we enjoyed researching it quite a lot.
Our fiends wanted to see the furnaces. For anyone who doesn't know (which is most people since Estill county is a master of keeping everything that makes it interesting a secret) Estill county, KY and Kentucky in general was a very big in the iron furnace business back in the day. 4 of those furnaces are located in Estill county (or at least were) one is in such bad shape it can really only be called a wall, one is just gone, one is buried so deep in the forest it's like trying to find a Mayan ruin (honestly, standing 20 feet away you have to look a few times before the shape of it comes out the leaves) and one is very well restored. We decided to visit the later two.
Fitchburg furnace
This one is next door to a Christian Summer camp for kids and is very well kept. They have a small barn with goats, sheep, horses, and lambs (one of which had a great old time chasing my, then younger, son around and butting him in the butt
)
But today it was just the adults. They also have a prayer labyrinth (never noticed it before) along with a little brochure about the different ways of walking the labyrinth .
Anyway back to the furnace. I've seen pictures of the rebuilding project and it was an immense and impressive effort. Masons used stones from the original site to replace the missing and broken ones. Originally there was also a large building at the back as well as a wooden structure into which the smelted ore ran for processing out of the furnace. The Slag (the trash produced in making Iron ore) was taken away and buried near by, we don't know where yet.
(not a great picture but I can't find my copies right now so i stole it from the internet...)
You can walk in and around the little tunnels that make up the heart of what must of been a hot place when it was in operation.
Some of them are a little too small for me to stand up straight
The furnace was built to be the biggest in the world at the time (around 1860 ish if i remember correctly) and it was, the problem was that it had become outdated by the time they finished building. It ran on charcoal and the technology had move on from then. Also while producing a heck of a lot of ore in the 3 years or so that it was in operation, it was running just at the end of the "Iron boom", and eventually closed down. The owners had built a whole town with shops, a church etc around the furnace (all since gone) and alas the project didn't last how they'd hoped.
You have to keep in mind how mountainous and difficult to traverse eastern Kentucky is to appreciate the effort of the Furnaces.
Cottage Furnace
When we got finished walking the little summer camp paths and driving by a few 'haunted" houses we headed off to cottage furnace, this one requires a moderate hike but also a trip up the mountain on a gravel road.
(One thing we found out that I was very interested in was that there are several "Sears" houses in Estill county still standing and lived in, we found this out while being told ghost stories, if you don't know about the housing "boom" after world war II and the creation of the subdivision, I sincerely suggest you look it up, it's a lot more interesting then it sounds)
Cottage Furnace used to be a public park (and still is I guess) but because of "illegal activity" - which here means, Meth - they blocked of the road and removed the park benches, so it's not exactly a welcoming public park even though it's in Daniel Boone national forest.
Below is a picture of the back of the furnace, a little climbing can get you on top but i was wearing jeans and the moss is wet and sandy so no climb today
There is a "tropical" feeling to exploring around cottage furnace, mayeb it's the deep sense of Kudzu around the place or the cicadas chirping in the background or the suddenly visible furnace that rises up all f a sudden just 20 to 50 feet of the main pah of what used to be the picnic around,
Jk Hiker in attendance, deep int he heart of the furnace
Jk re-handled SAK
Landyard bead by me
The story of how Cottage furnace ended is that of the two brothers who owned it the one who in charge of it the day it shut down for good received the news that his son had died. He called a halt to production for the day, to desperate to carry on. The problem is that you can't stop smelting iron in the middle of smelting iron and the center of this furnace is supposed to be infused with that same last load of ore, joined to the rock and fused to the heart of the furnace that never worked again (metaphorical just like the brother hearts i guess). I don't know if it's true or not. Anymore then I know the story of the runaway slave who jumped into the furnace rather then be dragged back to his masters house is true. But the stories that are left to use are interesting and important i think, true or not.
On a side note fellas and lasses,
The girl on the left of the picture below is Erin. She is a nice person and tells a good joke (she also repels insects, she mentioned, and has never been bitten by a mosquito.) One of the reasons we took them out today is because she is going into surgery tomorrow. She is one of the few people I've met who voluntarily signed up for the bone marrow transplant list. There is a 1 in 5 million chance of matching up with someone, she told me, and she does! She has the rather unique opportunity to help a 9 year old girl somewhere in America, she's not allowed to know where, only that she suffers from a condition that makes her unable to produce red or white blood cells. Tomorrow Erin will have 3 cups of bone marrow surgically drained from her hip bone. It's an out-patient procedure, and, she says, "not a big deal, really," but I happen to disagree with her. Going under general anesthetic is never really a small deal, but more to the point I believe it's a very big deal. I think we're looking at some parents miracle, and hopefully a little girls to.
If anyone could spare a thought for them all tomorrow, I'd appreciate it.
We got out and about again this weekend, my wife's book (Haunted Estill County) has hit the local scene running and some folks we know asked to see some of the places she talks about. The book was a remarkable way of finding out out a lot about the local history and we enjoyed researching it quite a lot.
Our fiends wanted to see the furnaces. For anyone who doesn't know (which is most people since Estill county is a master of keeping everything that makes it interesting a secret) Estill county, KY and Kentucky in general was a very big in the iron furnace business back in the day. 4 of those furnaces are located in Estill county (or at least were) one is in such bad shape it can really only be called a wall, one is just gone, one is buried so deep in the forest it's like trying to find a Mayan ruin (honestly, standing 20 feet away you have to look a few times before the shape of it comes out the leaves) and one is very well restored. We decided to visit the later two.
Fitchburg furnace
This one is next door to a Christian Summer camp for kids and is very well kept. They have a small barn with goats, sheep, horses, and lambs (one of which had a great old time chasing my, then younger, son around and butting him in the butt
) 
But today it was just the adults. They also have a prayer labyrinth (never noticed it before) along with a little brochure about the different ways of walking the labyrinth .
Anyway back to the furnace. I've seen pictures of the rebuilding project and it was an immense and impressive effort. Masons used stones from the original site to replace the missing and broken ones. Originally there was also a large building at the back as well as a wooden structure into which the smelted ore ran for processing out of the furnace. The Slag (the trash produced in making Iron ore) was taken away and buried near by, we don't know where yet.
(not a great picture but I can't find my copies right now so i stole it from the internet...)
You can walk in and around the little tunnels that make up the heart of what must of been a hot place when it was in operation.
Some of them are a little too small for me to stand up straight
The furnace was built to be the biggest in the world at the time (around 1860 ish if i remember correctly) and it was, the problem was that it had become outdated by the time they finished building. It ran on charcoal and the technology had move on from then. Also while producing a heck of a lot of ore in the 3 years or so that it was in operation, it was running just at the end of the "Iron boom", and eventually closed down. The owners had built a whole town with shops, a church etc around the furnace (all since gone) and alas the project didn't last how they'd hoped.
You have to keep in mind how mountainous and difficult to traverse eastern Kentucky is to appreciate the effort of the Furnaces.
Cottage Furnace
When we got finished walking the little summer camp paths and driving by a few 'haunted" houses we headed off to cottage furnace, this one requires a moderate hike but also a trip up the mountain on a gravel road.
(One thing we found out that I was very interested in was that there are several "Sears" houses in Estill county still standing and lived in, we found this out while being told ghost stories, if you don't know about the housing "boom" after world war II and the creation of the subdivision, I sincerely suggest you look it up, it's a lot more interesting then it sounds)
Cottage Furnace used to be a public park (and still is I guess) but because of "illegal activity" - which here means, Meth - they blocked of the road and removed the park benches, so it's not exactly a welcoming public park even though it's in Daniel Boone national forest.
Below is a picture of the back of the furnace, a little climbing can get you on top but i was wearing jeans and the moss is wet and sandy so no climb today
There is a "tropical" feeling to exploring around cottage furnace, mayeb it's the deep sense of Kudzu around the place or the cicadas chirping in the background or the suddenly visible furnace that rises up all f a sudden just 20 to 50 feet of the main pah of what used to be the picnic around,
Jk Hiker in attendance, deep int he heart of the furnace
Jk re-handled SAK
Landyard bead by me
The story of how Cottage furnace ended is that of the two brothers who owned it the one who in charge of it the day it shut down for good received the news that his son had died. He called a halt to production for the day, to desperate to carry on. The problem is that you can't stop smelting iron in the middle of smelting iron and the center of this furnace is supposed to be infused with that same last load of ore, joined to the rock and fused to the heart of the furnace that never worked again (metaphorical just like the brother hearts i guess). I don't know if it's true or not. Anymore then I know the story of the runaway slave who jumped into the furnace rather then be dragged back to his masters house is true. But the stories that are left to use are interesting and important i think, true or not.
On a side note fellas and lasses,
The girl on the left of the picture below is Erin. She is a nice person and tells a good joke (she also repels insects, she mentioned, and has never been bitten by a mosquito.) One of the reasons we took them out today is because she is going into surgery tomorrow. She is one of the few people I've met who voluntarily signed up for the bone marrow transplant list. There is a 1 in 5 million chance of matching up with someone, she told me, and she does! She has the rather unique opportunity to help a 9 year old girl somewhere in America, she's not allowed to know where, only that she suffers from a condition that makes her unable to produce red or white blood cells. Tomorrow Erin will have 3 cups of bone marrow surgically drained from her hip bone. It's an out-patient procedure, and, she says, "not a big deal, really," but I happen to disagree with her. Going under general anesthetic is never really a small deal, but more to the point I believe it's a very big deal. I think we're looking at some parents miracle, and hopefully a little girls to.
If anyone could spare a thought for them all tomorrow, I'd appreciate it.
