Buckeye Furnace State Memorial

      Buckeye Furnace is just one of the sixty-nine such furnaces that dotted the land in what was the Hanging Rock Iron Region.  Iron production ceased in 1916. Buckeye Furnace is one of only a few reconstructed furnace operations in the United States.  The Furnace complex was reconstructed in the early 1970s as a memorial to the charcoal iron industry once centered in southeastern Ohio and northern Kentucky.      Construction of Buckeye Furnace began in 1851 in Milton Township, Jackson County, built by the company of Hawkins, Daniels & Co. (HD & Co.). In addition to the furnace complex, they owned or leased several thousand acres of land with continuous stands of virgin timber, supplying the fuel when converted to charcoal. The surrounding hills contained easily mined iron ore that provided the  material that yielded a high grade of iron. In the Buckeye Furnace lands there was also limestone. This material provided "flux" (attracting impurities forming a paste on top of the molten iron in the production process).  The furnaces consumed staggering quantities of these raw materials. During one year's production, Buckeye Furnace required 12,000 cords of wood, 8,000 tons of iron ore and 400 tons of limestone.      At the of the furnace was a community of several hundred persons, where the workers and their families lived. The small town consisted of a general store, church, school, and graveyard. Occupations were classed as laborers, teamsters, ore-diggers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal burners, storekeepers, bookkeeper, and furnace owner or manager. Wages were low and life was primitive. The $10 or $20 per month wage was paid in scrip to be used in the company store. Homes were furnished by the company and were usually dirt floor log cabins. The manager had a home of wood or brick.      The park is now operated by the Friends of Buckeye Furnace Inc.- The stone stack was all that remained on the land donated in the 1930s by the Frank Morrow family of nearby Wellston. It is currently owned by the Ohio Historical Society.