How many belongings in your home contain any amount of steel? Nails in furniture, metal stove tops, even the staples holding together the pages of that report. Steel, the distant result of a long road of tasks, has been an unquestioned necessity for the activities of daily (human) life. Demand for this coveted metal is centuries-old, leading to the formation of communities where raw ores could be converted into a workable state: iron.

Furnace Town was one such community, located outside of what is now Snow Hill, Maryland, nestled in the woods near the Pocomoke River. The town and its iron-smelting furnace operated at full potential from 1828 to 1850.

Iron has always proven tricky to find and complicated to fashion. For workers of Furnace Town in their day, the process began with unearthing the raw iron ore, which they usually found in the Nassawango Swamp, and transporting it to the facility. Then the iron-workers needed to create charcoal to power their gargantuan furnace. Charcoal was no simple undertaking either, requiring trees to provide wood which would be piled under mounds of earth and burned very slowly. Burning wood to make charcoal demanded constant attention to prevent a large fire, for if the wood should go up into flames, it would turn to ash, no longer usable as charcoal. 2 acres of trees could produce 2.5 tons of charcoal, which would enable the making one ton of iron. Furnace Town smelted around 22 tons of iron each week, so that means their charcoal was being replenished relentlessly.

Once the workers had their ore and charcoal, they went to smelting the ore, melting the iron, burning away impurities and other materials under intense heat. Finally, they had their iron in its purest form, ready to be shipped throughout the eastern shore, where it would be fashioned into tools or converted to steel. Has this painstaking process deterred society from the use of iron? One look into your kitchen at the steel knives and iron stovetop may provide and adequate answer to that question.

Unfortunately for Furnace Town, they were forced to end their operations in 1850. This was in no way due to the quality of iron, for they produced top-notch material. Rather, the residents hadn't the wherewithal to keep up with the demand and make enough money to continue functioning (as well as paying off the creditors of the Maryland Iron Company). So, they had quality, but not enough quantity. Also, location may have played a part in their foreclosure. Indeed, they shipped material to Baltimore, Philadelphia, even as far as New York, but to do so they needed to float down a canal, traverse a creek, pilot the river, and head out through the bay. That was how this particular iron facility met its end after a short-lived hay-day.

Today, Furnace Town is a living history site and museum, presenting Furnace Town as it was in the 1800s during the time of its operation. The museum has been open since 1982, so that's 28 years, while the furnace was in full operation for only 22 years (1828 to 1850). Ironic...

Because the smelting furnace was such a labor-intensive process, requiring constant time and attention, the men working the iron built homes and brought their families to live on-site. This led to a great many other crafts being carried out in the town, from weaving to wood-working to blacksmithing. It truly was a community operation, with all aspects of domestic life. The Furnace Town Heritage Center focuses on recreating that atmosphere by having working artisans tend to their crafts under the eye of visitors.

Marian Adkins, weaving placemats. The art of weaving is anywhere from 10,000 to 35,000 years old, older than civilization. Legend says ancient man acquired the idea from seeing birds weave their nests. Flax was the first material to be woven, and cotton and flax were both grown in Furnace Town during the 1800s.

Marian, who has been weaving at the Heritage Museum for 10 years, calls this her "retirement job." She had been working at a pharmacy, but prefers this job as she gets to use her hands and make things. When she was a kid, she and her peers often had to make their own clothes, and Marian noted they didn't complain about brand-names and styles as kids do today.

Sydney Merrill, gardener. The garden at Furnace Town today grows cabbage, fennel, rue, peppermint and other herbs, and especially broom-corn, which provides the broom-maker with necessary materials. We also noticed marigolds growing in the garden, which act as a natural bug deterrent and were planted in the days before pesticides were widely used.

Filled with history, scenery, and period-dressed artisans, Furnace Town Living Heritage Museum is an important site to go on the list of any visitor interested in American History. They also have cultural events throughout the year. Be sure to see the rest of the photos!

Written by Erik Yount. Photography by Errol Webber