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Iron mining and smelting played an important role in the development of Dutchess and Putnam Counties in the 19th century. A reminder of this part of our history is the remains of the Dover Blast Furnace in Sharparoon, within the northern boundaries of the Great Swamp watershed.
Sharparoon, built in 1881, was the last of 3 blast furnaces known to have been built in the Dover area. Two other blast furnaces had been built in the 1830s-1840s. One had been built near Swamp River just south of Dover Furnace Rd., but was torn down in the 1940s to clear the area for the construction of a dam. The dam was intended to provide electricity for the Dover Furnace community. Another blast furnace, "White's Dover Furnace", was located west of the camp area, and used ore that was mainly from Amenia.
The ore that was mined in this area is part of an iron belt that stretches from Maine to the Carolinas. There is evidence that ore was mined in this area as early as colonial times. The mining operations used an open pit method, similar to quarrying. Blast furnaces were used to "smelt", or remove the iron from other minerals and impurities. Limestone was added to the ore as a separating agent, and the fires were fueled by charcoal. Since burning charcoal was not hot enough by itself to melt the ore, a "blast" of air was added to raise the temperature. The blast was produced by a bellows system, usually powered by a waterwheel. The blast furnace at Sharparoon was somewhat unique in that it used a steam engine in lieu of a waterwheel. Approximately 100 men were needed to tend to a blast furnace, which was operated 24 hours a day.
Charcoal making required a large quanitity of wood, and consumed much of the forests in the region. At one point, the Dover furnaces relied on charcoal imported from Vermont.
Sharparoon was built after the peak of the iron industry in this area. Local iron operations became unprofitable for many reasons. One was the increasing lack of wood for charcoal. Local processing methods were also very inefficient and clostly compared to newer methods like the Bessemer Process. Finally, better grade ore had been discovered in the Midwest that could be mined and processed more cheaply than the ore in our region. The expansion of the railroads allowed the Midwest ore to be shipped cheaply to other areas of the country. The last of the area iron mining and smelting operations disappeared in the early 1900s.