Trial and Error at Mount Aetna Furnace

Trial and Error at Mount Aetna Furnace. .

The iron industry of the Western Maryland region was a "prodigious industrial achievement and an immense contribution to the war effort, unmatched by any other furnace establishment in any other North American colony." , - Michael D. Thompson, 1976, The Iron Industry in Western Maryland

, Mt. Aetna resident Carl W. Shafer unearthed multiple Revolutionary Era artifacts on his property along Mount Aetna Road beginning in 1957., This Revolutionary War era cannon was discovered in 1969 by Shafer, his fifth cannon in 12 years, with the assistance of his friend and metal detection hobbbyist Douglas Bast., It was donated to the Washington County Historical Society in 1974 and soon displayed near the colonial home of town founder Jonathan Hager., [Map:] , Many colonial iron furnace complexes specialized in houseware items, like cast-iron stove plates, because Britain prohibited colonists from mass-producing arms and ammunition. Therefore, when the American Revolution began, colonists were forced to learn how to produce iron arms and ammunition through a hazardous process of trial and error., Brothers Samuel and Daniel Hughes operated the largest military iron producing facility in Maryland, producing cannons and ammunition for George Washington's Army. Mount Aetna Furnace, one of four furnaces built by the Hughes family, operated throughout the american Revolution., This cannon, which was never fired or even completed, tells a unique story about the growth of iron furnace complexes during the American Revolution., Due to an error in casting, the sprue (the conically shaped attachment formed at the end of the muzzle during the casting process) was never sawn off and the cannon was discarded and abandoned on the Mt. Aetna furnace property. It is physical evidence of the many tries it took Americans to successfully manufacutre much-needed weapons.