Jamie's post about being stranded on Steam Furnace Road in Adams County reminded me of some research I did a while back on how this road got its name.

It seems that all across Ohio, the early 1800's brought a pig-iron boom. Anywhere the settlers could find iron ore and wood, they seemed to build an iron furnace.

The Steam Furnace was the second furnace built in the area, in 1814. The nearby Brush Creek Furnace preceded it, and the Marble Furnace, just south of the Serpent Mound, was built shortly after.

The Steam Furnace was so named because a steam engine was used in its operation.

Each of these furnaces found their iron ore in pockets within basins in the cliff limestone near Brush Creek. The wood needed to produce the charcoal to make iron was available everywhere, initially. The best woodcutters could hand cut 7 1/2 cords of wood a day (at 25 cents a cord). At this rate, the woods and ore deposits of southern Ohio were rapidly depleted. However, at its peak, the nearby Marble Furnace employed 600 people.

The boom was short lived, however. By 1830 Steam Furnace was closed. The others fared no better. Once iron makers in other areas with coal found they could make better, cheaper iron with it, and found better, more plentiful ore, the local furnaces could not compete. Little remains now of the furnace except the name on this road.

There are some furnaces still standing, though. The best of these is the Ohio Historical Society's Buckeye Furnace near Oak Hill, which I recommend as one of the coolest yet least visited sites in Ohio.