Issue With This Marker?
Report an IssueLaura Furnance
998
US 68, LBL
Site of one of several furnaces operated in this region between the rivers, now lakes. This one, Laura, built 1855 by Tennesseans at cost of $40,000. Produced iron successfully, employing as many as 130, until Civil War forced it to close down. After the war it was in blast intermittently, but it could not be made profitable; was closed in 1872. See over.
Iron Made in Kentucky - A major producer since 1791, Ky. ranked 3rd in US in 1830s, 11th in 1965. Charcoal timber, native ore, limestone supplied material for numerous furnaces making pig iron, utensils, munitions in the Hanging Rock, Red River, Between Rivers, Rolling Fork, Green River Regions. Old charcoal furnace era ended by depletion of ore and timber and the growth of railroads. See over.