This is the heart of the Jackson Iron Company's operations in Fayette. The twin towers in the center of the photo are the blast furnaces themselves. Charcoal, lime and iron ore were loaded into the massive chambers and fired to produce molten iron, which was then let out the bottom of the furnace and cast into 100lb. bars known as pig iron. In the 24 years the furnaces were in operation they produced a total of 229,288 tons of iron. What was suprising to me is that there had to be a couple hundred pig iron bars littering the area while I was there the first time in 1999. One might think that they would have been cleaned up and sold when the company left the area, after all it was their money making product. On my 2005 trip I hardly saw any bars lying around, if the park cleaned them up, I'm not sure what I think about that kind of cleanup as it kind of messes with historical interpretation. The buildings on either side of the furnaces are processing buildings . Inside each building the molten iron would be directed to molds to make the pig iron ingots. The walls of these buildings are original, but the roofs were re-created when the site became a state park.

Here is a closer look at one of the furnace openings. I like the gothic arches, they're quite a stylish element for a utilitarian building. This opening is on furnace #2. It's a little difficult to make out on the picture, but there is a block above the opening that says "1870". The other furnace was built in 1869 but there is not a similar block on that structure.



Looking through the grating more clearly you can see a large mound of bricks (what's left of the furnace base) and slag leftover from the blasting process. Return to Fayette main page