Mammoth Furnace: 2018 LBL Geocache Challenge
No historic photograph of Mammoth Furnace is known to exist, but you may be able to see the remains of the stack as a small rubble pile that peaks above the surface of the lake.
Mammoth Furnace was built in 1845 on this spot, which would have been on the left bank of the Cumberland River at Hurricane Creek. Originally 31.5 feet tall and 9.5 feet wide, the stack is all but a small pile of rubble, usually visible above the water line when the lake is at normal pool.
The furnace began production in 1857 and produced 1,514 tons of iron quarried about ¾ mile west of here. Mammoth Furnace was owned by Graffenried & Co. in nearby Eddyville, unlike neighboring Empire, Fulton, and Center Furnaces, which were owned by Daniel Hillman & Co.
The “pig iron” (named for the method of casting in sand channels that resembled a sow nursing pigs) produced at iron furnaces in the Cumberland Valley was used to create nails, farm implements, sugar kettles, cookware, and other wrought iron products.
This cache is located amongst the cultural materials that remain from the Mammoth Furnace. Please keep your impacts to cultural remains to a minimum. You are looking for a clear watertight dry box (7” x 8” x 4”). Sign the logbook and collect one of the numbered aluminum tree tags. After you collect a tree tag from each of the 6 geocache sites, redeem them for a unique and distinctive challenge coin award at the LBL Golden Pond Visitor Center.
This geocache is not in a convenient location. It may be best to park at the end of Road 122 and hike about 1 mile along the shoreline to the furnace.