The Mt. Olive Furnace Park Corporation is planning to proceed with the restoration of the buildings surrounding the old stack and arch. The first building to be restored will be the Charging House which sits on top of the furnace and arch.

Special Topics on Mt. Olive Furnace and its restoration:

History of Mt. Olive Furnace

How Mt. Olive Furnace Worked

Olive Furnace - Main Page

Click on a furnace icon to learn more about that furnace.

Other Items of Interest

Charcoal Iron Furnaces - How Charcoal Iron Furnaces worked.
Raising Ore in Lawrence County - Mining the raw iron ore.
Forests to Charcoal - How the forest was turned into charcoal.
Vignettes of Southern Ohio - Life in Southern Ohio During the Furnace Years.
History of Mt. Olive Furnace - From its beginings to it's being sold for scrap.
How Mt. Olive Furnace Worked - What went into making iron from ore.

The building of Charcoal Iron Furnaces in Lawrence County began with the building of Union Furnace in Elizabeth Township and ended with the building of the Oak Ridge Furnace in Aid Township. These furnaces continued in operation until around the beginning of the 20th century.

Old photo of Ironton.

• Ironton was the iron capital of the nation around the Civil War era.
  
• Furnaces in Lawrence County were the first to use the hot air blast.
  
• Furnaces in Lawrence County were the first to close on Sundays.
  
• Hecla Furnace smelted a better grade of iron than that from Toledo, Spain or Damascus, Syria.
  
— England bought it during the Crimean War.
• The iron from the Hecla furnace was used in the manufacture of the 'Swamp Angel' canon of Civil War fame.
  
• Lawrence County had the largest number of charcoal furnaces of any county in the Hanging Rock Iron Region.
  
• A hot blast charcoal furnace used 11,370 cords of wood per year.
  
• A cold blast charcoal furnace used 11,500 cords of wood per year
  
— Both types of furnace required about 300-350 acres of trees per year to supply the neccesary wood.
• One cord of wood is a stack of wood four feet wide, four feet high and eight feet long.