By: rkohrs
Image: Russ Kohrs ⧉
License: Public Domain

Uploaded: 1 Nov 2021
Last Updated: 1 Nov 2021

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This is the front facade of Catherine Furnace, located in Page County, VA. One of many such "cold blast" furnaces in the Shenandoah Valley, it produced iron from local sedimentary iron ore (hematite and limonite). Over 200,000 acres of forest were made into charcoal in order to run it and local limestone was used as a flux in the process. These furnaces were "charged" from the top, materials being carried across a bridge that in this case was located on the opposite side of Rolling Run. A water wheel powered a large bellows.