We headed back home, but on the way we noticed a sign to yet another furnace, one none of us had heard of before.

It’s the Clove Furnace.

The Clove Furnace Ruin in Arden, New York, United States, was a longtime smelting site for iron ore mined from nearby veins in what is now Harriman State Park. It is located on Arden Station Road just east of the New York State Thruway, and can easily be seen from the highway. It was built in 1854 by Robert & Peter Parrott, who also owned and operated numerous mines in the area, known collectively as the Greenwood Iron Works. Together with the Greenwood Furnace (c.1810), located roughly one half mile east of Clove, these two furnaces produced iron which supplied the Parrott’s West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, NY. The foundry produced the famous and highly effective Parrott Rifle (cannon) utilized by the Union army during the Civil War. The furnace shut down permanently, shortly after Robert Parrott’s death in 1877.

It is located on Arden, which was formerly a property of Columbia University. (Wikipedia)

Additional information can be found here.

One of many blast furnaces in this iron ore-rich region, Clove Furnace opened in 1854, producing some 5,000 tons of iron by the following year—and 101,000 tons in the decade between 1871 and 1881. Iron produced here was used for the manufacture of stoves and other hardware. The furnace was shut down in 1885 and now serves as headquarters of the Orange County Historical Society. The restored stack, spillway, and other buildings provide a rare glimpse into an important 19th century industry in the Hudson River Valley, while the adjacent museum explains the iron-making process and offers displays about other aspects of Orange County history. Hiking trails in Harriman State Park pass many of the mines that supplied this and other furnaces.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II