The Ghost of Old Technology

This is what charcoal production used to look like in this area.

Charcoal was used to make pig iron in the local iron furnaces.

Each furnace burned up 276 acres of forest a year.

The wood was bucked and ricked tight, as shown, and banked with logs and earth to control oxygen and the speed and heat of the burn.

Charcoal for iron is very “old school.” Coke-fueled furnaces became the increasing norm in tree-short Britain after that technology was discovered in 1709, but here in the US we had vast forests and continued using charcoal even after the introduction of anthracite smelting in 1839.

Charcoal made from trees in this forest was used to make iron at the Catoctin Forge up until 1893.