This is one of those things I see on the roadside. As I drive past I wonder what is that? I like to turn around if I have time and take a few photos.
![](https://www.ericbrake.ws/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PXL_20220616_200232046-1024x576.jpg)
The historical plaque next to the stone structure states:
Joseph and Robert Woods and Thomas Yeatman built the first charcoal cold-blast furnace here in 1830. It used brown hematite ore from local deposits. Destroyed by Union forces in 1862, the present stack was built in 1873, with a railroad to Tennessee Ridge, on the route of the present highway. Operations here were discontinued in 1901.
National Register of Historic Places plaque (2022)
![](https://www.ericbrake.ws/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PXL_20220616_200316594-1024x576.jpg)
According to the listing at the Library of Congress, furnaces like this produced the highest quality iron. Tennessee ranked fifth in iron production at the end of the 19th century.
![](https://www.ericbrake.ws/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PXL_20220616_200356638-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://www.ericbrake.ws/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PXL_20220616_200411446-1-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://www.ericbrake.ws/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PXL_20220616_200518038-1024x576.jpg)