Furnaces

General information
The Iron Industry in Connecticut
It was concentrated in northwestern part of the state.
 There was iron ore and limestone in this region, and plenty of forests to make charcoal.
Maybe the "Follow the Blooms"  Slaves would have been familar with bloomeries, furnaces are large scale bloomeries.
The furnaces would have been lighted at night.  Slaves would have been familiar with them.  These basically are
in the Housatonic Valley.
All near a water source for bellows power.
Slag heaps nearby
In the furnace, they put a combination of iron ore, limestone and charcoal.
They sometimes used the slag to make a foundation for railroad track beds.
The iron sank, was heavy, and they tapped out the iron into a sand mold, usually one large piece and several smaller
pieces, called pigs.  It looked like a mother pig with baby pigs sucking, they were called piglets.  Hence, the
term "pig iron".
The slag was taken out of the top of the furnace and discarded.
Ore beds were in Salisbury, on the south shore of Twin Lakes (left one), and in Roxbury.  There are more on the New York/Connecticut
state line.
One piece of evidence of the furnaces is a salamander, which were large chunks of metal from when the furnace froze up.  It had to be taken apart
to get it out.  They is one on the Great Falls in Falls Village, several at the Canaan furnace and one at Bull's Bridge.
The limestone was quarried in Canaan.  That quarry has a big tunnel to store the train.  I question if there was some quarried
in Lyme Rock, Connecticut

At these furnaces (and associated industries ), the slaves could get a few days work.  They could find the furnaces and bloomeries
at anytime, from the smoke and from the glow they gave off at night.

And also to be looked into...The colliers (charcoal makers) employed Underground Railroad blacks.  They traveled with the
colliers, and as the groups kept moving, the blacks were on the move, and making money, and blending in.
Most of the collier groups were made up of freed blacks.  (from Walt Landgraf)

FURNACES - Connecticut

Forbes #1,  East Canaan, 1832
Forbes #2,  East Canaan - Beckley, 1847
East Canaan - 1872
Salisbury - 1762, Lakeville, outlet of lake
Mt. Riga - 1810
Joyce (Sage) - Salisbury - 1847 - Sage's Ravine
Chapinville (Landon, Louden) - 1826 - outlet of Schenob Brook
Great Falls (Bradley, Canfield) - 1812, Falls Village, Amesville
(Ames made cannons for the Civil War
Holley / Coffing (Lime Rock,#1), 1830
Lime Rock #2 - 1865, downstream of #1
Scoville & Church - "Dogtown"- Huntsville - Poole- 1844 - Canaan, Falls Village
Hunt Lyman and Co. (Buena Vista) -Poole - 1847- Lower City, Canaan, Falls Village
Sharon Valley (Bradley, Landon), Sharon 1825
Weed's - Sharon - 1845
West Cornwall - Poole - 1832
Cornwall Bridge - 1833
Macedonia - Kent - 1826
Kent (Stewart and Thompson) -Kent - 1826 - first known as Sand Plain Furnace, then Stuart and Hopson's,  then Kent
Bull's Bridge - 1826 (one source says 1844)
Waramaug (New Preston), 1837, outlet of lake
Roxbury - 1867
Lakeville - 1762 - outlet of Lake Wononscopomuc
Norfolk
Preston (same as New Preston?)
Still River / Sandy Brook
New Haven - Gov. Winthrop's- 1658-1668 - tied to Underground Railroad?

Massachusetts Furnaces

Alford
Ashley Falls
Briggs
Richmond
Lenox
Great Barrington (Van Duesenville)
Stockbridge
North Adams
Lanesborough
North  Adams
Pomeroy Iron Co. 1 & 2, West Stockbridge
Richmond
West Stockbridge (2 iron works)

New York Furnaces
Amenia
Beekman
Beckley - Chatham
Clove Spring (2), Beekman
Copake (2)
Dover, Dover Plains - White's, two of them
Gridley
Livingston's Furnace - Ancram
Millerton (Northeast) -Maltby (Phoenix) and Benedict
Sharparoon
Sharon Station, town of Amenia