| A walk through historic Greenwood Furnace evokes images of the community that flourished here from 1834 to 1904. Greenwood Furnace was a busy industrial complex, with all the noise & dirt of a 19th century ironmaking community. The village throbbed with life: the roaring of furnace stacks, the shouts of the workmen, the hissing of the steam engine, the creaking of wagons loaded with charcoal, & the cast house whistle signaling another pour of molten iron. The furnaces were hot (3,000 degrees Fahrenheit) & cast clouds of smoke & cinders into the air, which rained down indiscriminately on grass, people, livestock & buildings, rendering everything sooty & gray. At night, the fire’s red glow lit the sky, probably allowing residents to walk about without lanterns. Greenwood Furnace was a village built around an inferno. |
Campground: Greenwood Furnace State Park in Huntingdon Pennsylvania *