Secondary Industries and the Mill Pond

Secondary Industries and the Mill Pond. Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery Interpretive Trail. , At the height of his operation, Kunkel (who owned the furnace from 1856 to 1885) employed about five hundred men in the various operations, including mining, charcoaling, operation of the furnaces, sawmill, gristmill, store, farms, ore railroad, and property construction and maintenance. He added significantly to the houses for workmen, owning about 80 dwellings., A millpond fed by Little Hunting Creek is directly in front of you. When filled with water, it was the source of power for many ancillary village industries. A sawmill provided lumber, and a gristmill provided flour and cornmeal. The Catoctin Paint Company used blue and yellow oxides from the ore bank. The tanning industry in nearby Thurmont depended on bark removed from felled trees to provide charcoal: tannin in the bark colored hides in the leather-making process., Archaeological investigations revealed evidence of many cottage industries within village houses: cobblers repaired shoes, seamstresses made garments, and lampworkers made glass decorations. , , A stave mill, making sides for wooden barrels, tubs, and vats operated from 1914 until the early 1920s. This followed the shutdown of the iron industry and took advantage of the abundant timber on the mountain. Millions of barrel staves were sawed and shipped by rail from Catoctin.