You are here

Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Shenandoah Valley » Botetourt County » Eagle Rock Vicinity » Roaring Run Iron Furnace

Roaring Run Iron Furnace

-A A +A
1832; 1847, 1861 rebuilt. 450 Roaring Run Rd., Jefferson National Forest
  • (Photograph by D Hughes)

Roaring Run Iron Furnace, in operation periodically from 1832 until the end of the Civil War, served one of the extractive industries that played an important part in Botetourt's economy. The blast furnace, an elongated and truncated pyramidal structure of squared stone, has an opening in the top through which iron ore, charcoal, and limestone flux were loaded. The fire of the burning charcoal, intensified by bellows run by a water-powered tub mill, reduced the iron to molten pig iron that ran out onto the casting floor in front of a larger arched opening. In the furnace's final years most of its iron was shipped to the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond to produce arms.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,