Charcoal House

This valley was a good place to build a furnace. "Iron Plantations," as they were called, were built near a good source of iron ore, water and wood. The wood was used to make charcoal, the fuel needed for the furnace. It took a great deal of wood to keep the furnace supplied with charcoal. This is the reason furnaces, like Hopewell, were built close to the forests. The woodcutters cut the trees and brought the wood to the colliers who slowly burned it until the wood became charcoal.

The charcoal was stored in this charcoal house. If you filled this large stone building right up to the roof you would have enough charcoal to run Hopewell Furnace for six months. Since the colliers did not make charcoal during the winter months, the Ironmaster had to store enough charcoal in this building to fuel the Furnace well into the winter.

The open shed next to the charcoal house is where the charcoal was unloaded when it was brought to Hopewell from the charcoal hearths. After it was unloaded from the wagons and allowed to cool, men shoveled it through the big windows into the charcoal house. The very large wagon in the shed is a charcoal wagon used to carry the charcoal from the forest to Hopewell. It was usually pulled by four or six horses.

Along the side of the charcoal house is the ore pile. This iron ore, called magnetite, is the material from which iron is made. Iron is one of the most common elements found on earth. For nearly 3000 years, iron has been one of the most useful materials known to man.

The iron ore used at Hopewell was mined from three different mines. The farthest one, Jones Mine, was about four miles from here. The miners used simple tools like shovels and pickaxes to dig out the ore. Black powder was used to blast apart the harder rocks. Much of the ore had to be "roasted" to drive out impurities such as sulphur. This was done by piling the ore on wood or charcoal and burning it. It was then loaded onto wagons and brought to Hopewell.

Next stop on your tour is the Bridge House.

Looking down the road from the Visitor Center, you can see the twin-peaked Charcoal House. Behind it is the grey Bridge House, which connects to the Cast House, whose white steeple is visible on the left.

 

A pile of charcoal inside the Charcoal House. When the building was full, it could hold enough charcoal to run the furnace for six months.

 

A side view of the Charcoal House. On the left, with a wagon in it, is the open shed where the charcoal was taken to cool before it was put inside the main part of the building. This was done to prevent fires inside.