The World's Most Beautiful Places
Illinois Iron Furnace in Shawnee National Forest, near Rosiclare, Illinois. Made of brick and stone, the furnace was constructed between 1837-1839. The iron ingots produced at the furnace were shipped to Elizabethtown, Illinois and traded up and down the Ohio River. The furnance ceased operations in 1869, due to supply and labor shortages related to the American Civil War.
Cumberland Falls State Park in rural southeast Kentucky near the town of Corbin. Cumberland Falls is part of the Cumberland River drainage, a 688-mile-long river system Kentucky that begins in the Appalachian Mountains, and flows into the Ohio River at its meeting point with the Tennessee River. Its major tributaries include the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, and Red Rivers.
Historic Newlee’s Iron Furnace, located in Cumberland Gap National Park, was constructed in 1819 of locally sourced sandstone blocks, and its interior (seen here) was lined with fired bricks. Each day 625 bushels of charcoal (approximately 52 trees), 6 1/4 tons of locally mined iron ore, and 1,563 pounds of limestone were used to produce approximately 3 tons of iron. The produced iron was used both locally, and shipped as ingots down the Powell River to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
