Charcoal House and Cooling Shed at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
Historical Furnace Village Main Page
The furnace at Hopewell consumed fifteen bushels of charcoal every hour it was in blast (producing molten iron). This required between 6,000 and 7,000 cords of wood to be clear cut from the surrounding forest every year (roughly equivalent to 200 acres). While this sounds like an ecological disaster in the making, the Hopewell Furnace property included 6,000 acres of forest, so it would take 30 years to cut it all. By that time the first area cut would have new 30-year-old trees ready for harvesting.
Once cut, the wood was delivered to the colliers, the people who make charcoal. When ready, the charcoal, still hot, was delivered by wagon to the Charcoal House, which was close to the furnace. To insure that the hot coals didn’t ignite the charcoal already inside the building, which could hold up to 30,000 bushels, it was first dumped on the ground underneath the adjacent Cooling Shed, an open-sided structure with a roof to keep the charcoal out of the rain. When cooled, it was shoveled by hand into the Charcoal House for storage.
Charcoal was shoveled from the Cooling Shed into the Charcoal House through the upper windows, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
The Cooling Shed at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site is the first building visitors see when beginning their exploration of the park. Now stored underneath the roof is a collection of wagons that were typical of the types used to deliver charcoal. A charcoal wagon had a bottom that could be removed so that the contents dropped onto the ground instead of having to be shoveled out of the wagon by hand.
Collection of charcoal wagons on display at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
When the furnace was in blast, fillers were constantly loading wheelbarrows with charcoal and carting it to the furnace. A filler worked a 12-hour shift before being replaced. The process of filling the furnace with coal, along with flux and iron ore, was a 24-hour-a-day job. (Note that the charcoal inside the Charcoal House was made by park Rangers and volunteers during the yearly charcoal-making demonstration held each May.)
Inside the Charcoal House at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
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Last updated on June 12, 2024
