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Buckeye Furnace

Wellston · Jackson County · Southern Ohio

A charcoal iron furnace from the Hanging Rock Iron Region

National Register of Historic PlacesOhio History Connection

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.

Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
Location confidence: Verified entrance or visitor center
Buckeye Furnace State Memorial (published coordinates)
Seasonal access: Grounds: daylight hours all year. Museum and gift shop: weekends from June 13 through October, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (some sources list noon to 4 p.m.).
Check current conditions: Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets: Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

A reconstructed charcoal blast furnace with its original stack, showing how pig iron was made in the 1800s.

Built: 1852 (some sources say 1851)
In blast: Until 1894
Product: Pig iron from charcoal, local iron ore and limestone
Rebuilt: Reconstructed in 1972 around the original stack
Site: A 270-acre site with a casting shed, charging loft, engine house and company store
Region: The Hanging Rock Iron Region of southeastern Ohio

The story

Buckeye Furnace is one of the many charcoal-fired blast furnaces that once made the Hanging Rock Iron Region of southern Ohio a center of iron production. It was built in 1852 and went out of blast for the last time in 1894. Iron-making towns like this one, scattered through the hills, turned local iron ore, limestone and the charcoal of vast stands of wood into pig iron, and the region's furnaces helped supply the Union in the Civil War.

The Ohio History Connection rebuilt Buckeye Furnace in 1972 around its original stack. It has the casting shed at the base, a charging loft where ore, limestone and charcoal were loaded from above, an engine house for the steam-powered blower and a company store that now serves as the museum. The site says it is the only reconstructed furnace that, apart from the trees that have grown up since, looks much as it did when it was working.

The Furnace That Went Out in 1894

For forty years a fire burned day and night in the hills near Wellston. Wagonloads of ore and charcoal went in at the top, and a stream of molten iron ran out the bottom. Then, in 1894, it went out for good, and the whole town that had grown around it disappeared into the trees.

What is left is a stone stack, a company store and a story of how a forest was burned into iron.

Behind the legend

The 1852 build date and 1894 closing are from the Ohio History Connection and Wikipedia. Some sources give 1851. The 270-acre figure is the site's; the National Register listing covers 77 acres. The Civil War connection is the region's, not this furnace's alone.

If you go

Walk the marked trail to the furnace stack and the casting shed, and combine it with nearby Lake Alma State Park.