In the U.P. east of Marquette is a former town called Onota. This town does not exist anymore, only lasting from 1869-1877.
Onota was destroyed by fire in 1877 and the only remaining thing from the town is the blast furnace where pig iron was smelted, from 1870-1877. It's one of the last such structures that remain in the Upper Peninsula. This furnace cranked out 20 tons of pig iron every day.
The term “pig iron” dates back to the time when hot metal was cast into ingots before being charged to the steel plant. The moulds were laid out in sand beds such that they could be fed from a common runner. The group of moulds resembled a litter of sucking pigs, the ingots being called “pigs” and the runner the “sow.
Because the furnace is the only original Onota remnant, the area has been named the Bay Furnace Campground, occupying the site that was once Onota.
The town of Christmas is right next door within the Hiawatha National Forest and the Bay Furnace is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The ruins of this furnace include a forty-five-foot-high, closed-top stack with nine-foot boshes (the cavities in the furnace). The stack was built of large reddish-gray sandstone blocks extracted from Powell's Point by the Bay Furnace Company. The company processed iron here from 1870 to 1879. The hot blast and boilers were located at the top. To convert iron ore taken on the Marquette Iron Range into pig iron, the furnace burned charcoal from hardwood cut from nearby forests and produced in nearby kilns. Ships loaded and unloaded at a company-owned dock on the lake.
One of the last remaining structures of its kind in the Upper Peninsula, it is also a good place to view Lake Superior and Grand Island
To claim this virtual reward, you will have to email or message me the answer to the following question (do not post it in your log-it will be deleted) AND post a photo of yourself with the Bay Furnace ruins behind you in your found it log (faces are optional).
What kind of trees supplied fuel wood which was charred in kilns to create charcoal?
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.