Hope Furnace
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Hanging Rock Iron Region

Hope Furnace, also, Hanging Rock Iron Region. . , W.H. Allison constructed Big Sand Furnace between 1853 54. It took the name of the company town, Hope that housed its workforce by the late 1860s. Smelting transformed rugged iron ore into uniform blocks known as "pig iron." Hope Furnace produced 15 tons daily at peak production and woodcutters timbered an estimated 325 acres of forest yearly for fuel. Manufacturing centers in the eastern U.S. refined this iron into cookware, railroad tracks, and even munitions used in the Civil War. Iron production shifted westward in the late 1800s which spurred Hope Furnace's closure in 1874. Vinton County sold the abandoned land in 1884. Lake Hope Forest Park, the predecessor to the current state park, opened in 1937. (Continued on other side), Hanging Rock Iron Region. , Hope Furnace was just 1 of 69 charcoal iron furnaces scattered across the Hanging Rock Iron Region that operated between 1826-1916. This 1,800 square mile area included Hocking, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Scioto, and Vinton counties. Every resource necessary to produce high quality iron was found here. Miners extracted ore from outcropped veins exposed from erosion in creek hollows. Workers pulled limestone necessary to smelt iron from outcrops and, in some cases, quarried it. Dense hard- wood forests provided furnaces with abundant fuel. Today, this region's rich history of iron production remains visible on the landscape as other furnaces, such as Buckeye and Vesuvius Furnaces, stand alongside towns that bear industrial names like Franklin Furnace and Ironton.