As you might guess by the name, the heart of this small, short lived town was an iron furnace that operated here in the Maryland swamps for just 22 years, 1828 – 1850.   They processed what they referred to as bog ore.  Who knew there are cypress swamps in Maryland?  Not I.

Workers homes were modest but cozy. The blacksmith shop still smells of sulfur laden coal.  A one room school houses a great collection of period items: a slate and slate pencil, the sharpener for those slate pencils, lunch pails, the leather paddle, a dunce cap, rubber stamps used to make “worksheets” of the time, desks sized from the youngest/smallest the mature 6^th grader.  Many essential trades were show-cased in a woodworking shop, the weaving room, a broom makers shop, and the spinning house.  Add a church and garden and I can really imagine what life might have been like those long years ago.  We are missing one big component, the furnace smoke relentlessly blanketing all….I’m glad we are missing that!