Fifteen Minutes in the Forest: Forests, Charcoal, & Pig Iron

Forest history in the eastern US is closely tied to the Iron industry which used massive amounts of charcoal. Charcoal is made from wood! Wood comes from trees. Two foresters and a historian "tell all".

[@bellairfarm]

awesome and informative. thanks for this series!

[@ryelor123]

I wish an operation like this could be restored to working order for teaching history.

[@virginiaforestlandowneredu309]

Yes, that would be awesome to see!

[@burlnorris3687]

Very well done and educational. Explains the old photos of the treeless mountains in the early 1900's My friend told me of his Grandpa pointing out pig-iron laying in the Shenandoah while they were fishing. It must have been lost off a barge. Also I have an old charcoal clearing on my land near Liberty Furnace. This puts it all together!

[@adamdowning6678]

Thanks Burt. In the making of this, it put a lot of things together for me too.

[@dicksargent3582]

These furnaces may have initially abused the forests as said here. Later as coal/coke started to supplement charcoal and threatened charcoal iron production in regions where coal was inaccessible the Charcoal Iron association in the 1840's were the first to start sustainable forest management in PA. and NJ.

[@emeraldsprings3471]

Great info! I've seen a few of the furnaces while roaming Virginia. However, I had no idea of the scale nor the reliance on slave labor. I'll definitely never look at them the same now.

[@WNH3]

Gents, it might be nice to show your location on a map at the beginning of your videos (for those of us who don't know the Commonwealth as well as you do!)

[@adamdowning6678]

Good idea Chip. Did you see the map of sorts (aerial image with place markings) I included early in the video?