KINGWOOD — The Old Iron Furnace near Albright will reopen by next weekend, according to Robert Sypolt, chairman of the Iron Furnace Committee and president of the Preston County Historical Society.
Sypolt said members of the Kingwood Lions Club will soon be cleaning up a tree that fell at the site.
“We closed the trail going down to the furnace earlier in the year because we saw a tree leaning toward it after a wind storm last winter,” Sypolt said.
He said the tree posed a safety hazard for anyone near the furnace or its historical marker.
According to the marker, the furnace was built 168 years ago.
It states: “Built by Harrison Hagans in 1852. This furnace and others were used to cast iron in frontier days. Early castings were made here for the Brandonville stove used by the early settlers west of the Ohio River.”
According to wvexplorer.com, the furnace operated until the 1890s and was the last charcoal iron furnace to operate in northern West Virginia. In 1933, the site was acquired by the Kingwood Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which created a roadside park, now Muddy Creek Park, at the furnace site.
Sypolt said neither the furnace nor its marker were damaged by the falling tree.
The furnace is along W.Va. 26, north of Albright.
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