Red Top Mountain Iron Mine Earthcache
The area surrounding Red Top Mountain State Park is rich in both Cherokee Indian and Civil War history. The park however, took its name from the mountains near the confluence of the Etowah River and Stamp Creek, center of the large antebellum Iron Industry district in Bartow County, Georgia.
Iron furnaces drove local economies, first in Habersham County, Bartow County and Dade County. They existed in large cities and many small ones throughout the state of Georgia. The iron used to create the furnaces and fences for residents and presses, boilers and mills for businesses in many instances also came from nearby producers.
Early History of the Iron Ore Industry
First of the southern ironbelts to be developed were in South Carolina, north of Camden, starting just before the American Revolution. Within 30 years many these iron mills had ceased production because of the inferior quality of iron produced.
Two ironmakers, Adam Carruth and Elias Earle, however, opened ironworks in Spartanburg and Cherokee County. By the start of the War of 1812, Carruth had an armory and a federal contract. Earle received a federal contract for guns in 1816, a contract he was unable to fulfill, which ended his business venture. Carruth continued to produce iron through 1822, when he ran into trouble with his federal contract.
Earle had eyed the abundant mineral wealth of the Cherokee Nation to support a furnace, and from 1807 he began promoting his idea of building a furnace in Indian country. Earle wanted a piece of land 6 miles square that had an ore bed and water. When he sent men to build a furnace near the confluence of Chickamauga Creek and the Tennessee River they were turned around near Taylor's Crossroads Catoosa County. The state of Tennessee then held up ratification of the treaty giving Earle the land and Earle's plan collapsed.
Jacob Stroup
Jacob Stroup raised and commanded a regiment in the War of 1812.
In 1815 ironmaking moved to Cowpens when Edward Fewell, and Jacob Stroup built an ironworks lying on both sides of King's Creek at Dulin's old mill. Stroup and Fewell spent $2000.00 on the purchase, which they improved until Fewell died in 1822. Stroup married Fewell's wife after his death.
Stroup (sometimes misspelled as Stroop) would soon become well-known to Georgians. Stroup founded The King's Mountain Iron Company, which operated from 1822 to 1830. When a flash flood caused an explosion in the furnace, Stroup called in his son Moses to rebuild the plant while he began working on the Cherokee Iron Works on the Broad River in 1826, but he sold the company before 1830 to Ernor Graham. Graham renamed the company the South Carolina Iron Manufacturing Company.
While Dahlonega and Auraria are the best known Georgia Gold Rush towns, Clarkesville, in Habersham County and Gainesville, in Hall County also saw significant growth after the 1828 discovery of gold. When Jacob Stroup first set up the Stroup Iron Works in 1831 the town had machine shops, four lawyers, a confectionery shop, two churches, three taverns and a brewery.
By 1835 Stroup was having financial problems and interested John C. Calhoun in investing in his business on the banks of the Soque. About this time Ironmaster Jacob Stroup brought his son Moses into the business as an ironmaker.
According to Ariel Sherwood's Georgia Gazetteer. Stroup's Iron Works were three miles out of town on the Soque River and consisted of "...a forge and furnace, and various workshops, to consume that part of the iron which is not sold in bars and castings." Sherwood gave his production of iron as 25 tons and 60 tons of castings in the year of the Panic of 1837. In 1839 the state exempted all employees of Stroup's Iron Works in Habersham County from serving on jury duty. Jarvis Van Buren, nephew of Martin Van Buren, and founded of Habersham County's apple crop, joined the Stroup Iron Works as a manager.
There were many names for the Iron Works including Stroup's Iron Foundry and Habersham Iron Works and Manufacturing Company.
Moses Stroup
Moses lived in Lincoln County, North Carolina until he joined Jacob at the Iron Works near Clarkesville, but by the time Moses arrived both men were looking west to expand their business. In 1837 they journeyed to the new city of Cartersville in the former Cherokee Nation, partly to take advantage of the Building the Western and Atlantic Railroad and partly because of the rich iron belt associated with the Cartersville fault.
The date of the Stroup's move to Cartersville is based on the sale of the site of the Stamp Creek furnace from Jesse Lamberth to Alexander Stroup (son of Jacob, brother of Moses) on January 25, 1837. Alexander conveyed the title to Jacob on May 11, 1837. Jacob and Moses establish the first furnace (a bloomery) on Stamp Creek that year. Known as Etowah Bloomary, this forge was replaced in 1841 by Etowah Bloomary Forge No. 2.
Moses Stroup ran the Etowah Works on the Stamp River until 1843 when the mill and surrounding land was sold to Mark Anthony Cooper, generally known as Major Cooper, who had lost the race for governor earlier in the year. At the time the Western and Atlantic Railroad was starting to grade north of the Etowah River. Moses Stroup would continue to be involved in Georgia production of iron until 1847.
Mark Anthony Cooper
Major Cooper was a politician and one of the early organizers of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He purchased Stroup's Etowah Bloomary on Stamp Creek in 1843, and Moses Stroup continued to work with him to show him how to process iron. In 1847, Cooper and Stroup planned on moving to the Etowah River to be closer to the railroad, timberland and the iron ore from Red Top Mountain. They enlisted a third partner, merchant Leroy Wylie, for additional financial backing. Moses Stroup was not able to come up with the money needed, so Wylie and Cooper bought his share.
The Etowah Rolling Mill was established in 1849 and located just over a mile from Cooper's Allatoona Furnace. This mill had 9 furnaces with rolling trains, nail machines, and a hammer, all driven by water power. In 1856 the plant produced 900 tons of pig iron, mostly from 2 open cut mines in the Allatoona Iron Belt (along the Western and Atlantic Railroad) and other cuts in the Wheeler Ore Bank.
Cooper and Wylie established the city of Etowah around a blast furnace that still stands today. The town had a 1.75 mile short line railroad to Etowah Station on the Western and Atlantic Railroad and numerous businesses associated with iron production such as a rolling mill. At its height, the city of Etowah may have had a population of 800 people.
Because of its ability to produce iron, the city was a major target during William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. General Jacob Cox took the city as temporary commander of the XXIII Corps, Army of the Ohio, on May_26, 1864 after a brief battle. The city was never rebuilt.
Robert Cravens
Cravens was born in Rockingham County, Virginia and spent most of his childhood in Selma, Alabama and Tennessee. His uncle, George Gordon, owned the Bright Hope Furnace and let young Robert Cravens become his partner in 1826. Cravens built a furnace on Whites Creek in Rhea County, Tennessee shortly after becoming Gordon's partner.
In 1837 Robert Cravens moved down Whites Creek to its confluence with the Tennessee River and built Eagle Furnace, which produced high-quality iron that was used throughout northwest Georgia, northeast Alabama and southeast Tennessee. The furnaces at this location were so successful early on that Cravens built a canal from the Tennessee River to Eagle Furnace, however, the Panic of 1837 and resulting depression forced Robert Cravens to close Eagle Furnace.
Bluff Furnace was completed in 1856, owned by the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company, came online with Robert Cravens (the only principal partner with practical iron experience). East of Ross's Landing the furnace could use both rail and boats to bring in the raw materials to create iron and the furnace flourished until The Civil War.
To overlook his iron empire Cravens built the Cravens House, which figured prominently in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Joseph 'Fighting Joe' Hooker's men swept across the outcrop Craven chose to build his house only to be driven back by a counterattack by Edmund Pettus. The Yankees regrouped and took the plateau.
The Changing Iron Industry
in 1869 the Bessemer Converter was introduce into America and America's iron furnaces concentrated on producing pig iron, the form of iron required to make steel. Most Georgia iron was never considered to be high grade with the exception of the Dyestone belt. As steel production ramped up, Georgia iron production decreased and by 1875 all furnaces in Georgia, with the exception of those using Dyestone belt iron in extreme northwest, had ceased production.
Iron ore continued to be mined in Georgia through the early 20th century. Within a hundred years the Bessemer process was considered obsolete.
Types of Iron Ore
Ochre
“soft iron”
Ochre is most commonly used as a coloring agent for masonry products. It is the only iron ore currently mined in the county – not for iron production, but for making pigments – by the New Riverside Ochre Company.
Goethite
“brown iron ore”
Goethite and limonite, both popularly called “brown iron ore,” are responsible for most of the pig iron production in the county. Goethite was named in honor of the German poet (and amateur mineral collector) Johann Wolfgang von Goeth.
Specularite Hematite
“gray iron ore”
Worldwide, hematite in its various forms constitutes the most important source of iron ore. It is often reddish; in fact, its name is from a Greek word meaning “blood-like.” Bartow County’s hematite is primarily silver gray in color, a flaky stone known as specularite. Although an iron ore, little of Bartow’s hematite was used for iron production.
Limonite
“brown iron ore”
Over the years, Bartow County has produced some six million tons of “brown iron ore,” the common name for limonite and goethite. Outside of Bartow, limonite is found mainly in Austria and England.
Slag
Slag was the waste product of iron production. Limestone or some other “flux” was added to the iron ore to draw out the impurities. In the furnace, the molten iron sank to the bottom, while the impurities, being lighter, rose to the top, where they could be scooped out. As this waste hardened, it formed slag, which varies in color and texture depending on the impurities.
Logging Requirements:
Please submit your answers PRIOR to logging the find.
Email me the answers to the first two questions, and post the picture required from #3 with your log.
- What type of iron ore do you think was mined from the area where you are standing?
- What is the elevation reading at the cache coordinates?
- Post a picture of your GPSr with the old mining site in the background (optional). (Hint, the old mining site is where the cords lead you)
Please do not post your answers in your online log. Any logs containing answers or not meeting the guidelines, including the posted picture, will be promptly deleted without notice. I will not email anyone begging them to fulfill the requirements! Thanks...
The Iron Hill Trail is open to hikers as well as mountain bikers and is just a hair under 4 miles as it makes a loop through an old 1800's mining area within Red Top. Please be sure to pay special attention to the directions of travel on the signs at the trail heads, since cyclists travel a different direction than hikers. This is a moderate crushed gravel double track trail, so the terrain should be suitable for all ages. Helmets are REQUIRED for cyclists. The gate to the parking area is closed at dark, so please be sure to give yourself enough time to make it back to your vehicle in time to not get locked in.
This geocache is placed with permission by the park manager.
Enjoy your visit at the park and remember to practice, "Leave No Trace." While visiting any Georgia State Park, please obey all park rules and remain on the marked trails as you make your way to find the geocaches. You can discover more than 15 miles of hiking trails in the park.
Parking and trailheads:
You may park in the area designated specifically for the Iron Hill Trail (coordinates provided). The trail head is at the end of the parking area and is clearly marked. There is a $5.00 parking fee, unless you have a season pass. A collection box is conveniently located on the left side of the entrance road to the parking area. Trail maps are provided at no charge at the park office and the visitor center, or you may download one from the park's website here.
The trails are closed after dark. You will notice signs that state this at every trailhead. This is for your own safety, so please abide by this rule.
Dogs are welcome but must be on a 6' leash at all times.
Enjoy!
References
http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com
Red Top Mountain State Park Office
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