[Rockhounds] Bog Iron in the Northeast

[John Scully]

20 years ago, at a show in Chambersburg, PA, I traded a small tourmaline
for a melon sized bog iron geode with fantastic inner structures.  The
fellow had collected it locally.  My suggestion would be to look up rock
clubs in eastern PA and ask them.  There were also many old smelter
furnaces from the revolutionary war period around the Reading area that I
visited as a kid.  I picked up the pretty slag around them and thereby got
the nick name "slag".  I assume that these also used bog iron.   You could
google about these smelters.  There probably are some historical societies
that keep records on them or even keep some open for public viewing.

Unfortunately, my experience back East was that you had to know somebody to
get into a collecting area.  Good luck.

John Scully

On Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 11:37 AM, <larryrush at att.net> wrote:

> Ron: Connecticut was once a major producer of bog iron, early in the
> settlements. There is a story (I have not verified this) that bog iron from
> the Salisbury District was used to create a chain to span the Hudson River
> during the Revolutionary War.
> Many towns in CT contributed to bog iron production in the early years,
> from
> the shoreline up to Mass. The ones around Litchfield County were noted to
> have left heaps of bog ore raked out of swampy areas when the smelters took
> over for iron making.
> I have not personally looked for any of these old heaps, but they exist, if
> anecdotally, in the older towns there. It might be worth checking with the
> local library historians in some of those NW  CT or So. Mass. towns, and
> poking around where the producing sites were. Maybe by digging in anomalous
> piles, you might uncover some, quietly rusting away over the decades.
>
> Larry Rush
> Guilford, CT
>
> ===============================================================
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf Of
> THE HAMMER
> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 1:14 PM
> To: Rockhound List <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
> Subject: [Rockhounds] Bog Iron in the Northeast
>
> Hello,
>
>
> Would anyone know if there are any localities of bog iron that would be
> open
> to collectors in the northeast United States?  Hoping that there would be
> enough ore available on site to be able to smelt a generous amount of bloom
> iron.
>
>
> Ron
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rockhounds mailing list
> Subscription Services:
> http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_
> rockhounds.drizzle
> .com
> List Usage Policy: http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/
> Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rockhounds mailing list
> Subscription Services:  http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/
> mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.drizzle.com
> List Usage Policy: http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/
> Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml
>