Iron Works
Lincoln County, Lincoln County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Iron Works. Many iron mines and forges were operated within a radius of ten miles of this point between 1790 and 1880.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Between roughly 1790 and 1880 the hills around this point in Lincoln County held a cluster of iron mines and forges, part of an early Southern iron district that supplied tools, implements, and munitions. Water-powered forges turned local ore into wrought iron long before larger industrial furnaces elsewhere overtook them.
Why it matters
These backcountry forges were among the young republic's first industries, quietly arming and equipping a frontier economy.
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