The trail will take you to the town of Hope Furnace, a company town developed during the operation of the furnace (1854 – 1874). There is a view of the furnace across the roadway. Only a few foundations and wells still remain. The furnace, which is across the road, was fired by coal or charcoal and used to smelt iron ore. A town to house workers was hastily built around it.There were once small homes, a school, coal mine, and general store in the town. If you take a look around across the street, you can find tiny black, glass-like pieces of slag—a by-product of the smelting process and basically the impurities left over after heating the ore. To access the trail to this cache, look for the wooden sign for the backpacking trail and Old Hollow Trail.