Oregon Iron Company Furnace | |
Nearest city | Lake Oswego, Oregon |
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Coordinates | 45°24′39.54″N122°39′38.52″W / 45.4109833°N 122.6607000°W Coordinates: 45°24′39.54″N122°39′38.52″W / 45.4109833°N 122.6607000°W |
Built | 1866 [1] |
Architect | Richard Martin |
NRHP reference No. | 74001674 [2] |
Added to NRHP | 1974 |
The Oregon Iron Company Furnace, or Oswego Iron Furnace, is an iron furnace used by the Oregon Iron Company, in Lake Oswego, Oregon's George Rogers Park, in the United States. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places [3] in 1974 [2] and underwent a major renovation in 2010. [3] [4] [5] The current furnace is the only structure that remains of the original iron company, [6] and is the oldest industrial landmark in the state of Oregon. [7]
Before 1862, the majority of Oregon's iron came from the East Coast of the United States. Due to the long and difficult journey, these imported iron products from the East were sold up for up to ten times what they originally cost. [8] Aaron K. Olds, a blacksmith who worked with the first iron on Lake Superior, also created the first iron from Oswego ore in 1862 in his iron forge, [9] despite iron ore being discovered there as early as 1841 by Robert Moore, founder of Linn City. [10] According to his daughter Ellenette Olds Booth, Olds had started the forge with intention to smelt the iron ore. Smelting the ore is an important step that would allow Olds to separate the iron from the raw ore, but the ore proved refractory, and Olds was unable to smelt down the iron. [9]
However, Olds and his business partner H.S. Jacobs, eventually turned a significant profit from creating horseshoe nails and miner's picks that were displayed in Jacobs' wagon shop window on Portland's Front Street. [9] With Olds' profits, a group of investors from Portland saw the economic opportunity that was now available in forming an iron company based in Oregon. [11] The project was, in part, spearheaded by Olds' competitor Henry D. Green, who had purchased the water rights to Sucker Creek and a few acres of land above Oswego Landing in 1862. Water rights were important to hold within the industry, as it would provide the steam power necessary to fuel the engines of the furnaces [6] and work the iron. The area that he purchased is present-day George Rogers Park, and would later also be used as the site of the Oregon Iron Company. [9] Henry, along with his brother John and H.C. Leonard, were influential investors as they also owned the Portland Water Company at the time. As they were stakeholders in the water industry, they also hoped to have a hand in production of iron in the west, rather than pay high prices for iron in iron water pipes imported from the East or other competitors. [11]
After the foundation of the Oregon Iron Company in 1865, William S. Ladd was elected president of the company. H.C. Leonard became the vice-president and the first plant superintendent, [9] and Henry D. Green became the secretary and company director. Twenty stockholders had invested a total of $500,000 in the company by February 1865, [11] with some stockholders being from New York and San Francisco. [9]
Water disputes and Eastern competitors suspended the company several times before finally operations shut down indefinitely in 1894. [6]
George D. Wilbur from Connecticut supervised the construction of the furnaces which began in 1866, including the one that remains standing today. Wilbur modeled all the stone furnaces after the furnaces of the Barnum Richardson Company in Lime Rock, Connecticut. The furnaces are 32 feet tall with gothic-style arches lining the walls, 34 feet square at the base, and 26 feet square at the roof. [6] These furnaces were constructed from material from various places. For instance, basalt from the north side of Lake Oswego was used in stonework. Firebrick was imported from Great Britain, and used in the shafts, chimneys and heat exchangers of the furnaces. [7] In order to melt down and refine the iron ore into workable metal iron, the stone walls of the furnaces were constructed to withstand temperatures of up to 2,800°F. Ultimately, the cost of construction was $126,000. [6]
In July 2009, work on the deteriorating arches of the Oregon Iron Company Furnace began. However, after the discovery of more deterioration than previously expected, more materials were necessary and extended the completion by three months. Ultimately, it took nine months and $918,000 for the crews to complete the renovation before its completion in March 2010. [12]
Lake Oswego is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Located about 8 miles (13 km) south of Portland and surrounding the 405-acre (164 ha) Oswego Lake, the town was founded in 1847 and incorporated as Oswego in 1910. The city was the hub of Oregon's brief iron industry in the late 19th century, and is today a suburb of Portland. The population in 2010 was 36,619, a 3.8% increase over the 2000 population of 35,278.
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Oswego Lake is a lake in Clackamas County, Oregon that is completely surrounded by the city of Lake Oswego. Though the lake is naturally occurring, it has been significantly altered because of the concrete dam that has increased its size to 431.7 acres (1.747 km2). The United States Geological Survey records the official name as Lake Oswego and, because of its artificially increased size, classifies it as a reservoir. To distinguish it from the city, however, the lake is usually called Oswego Lake.
The Oregon Iron Company was an iron smelting company located in what is now Lake Oswego, Oregon. The company was established in 1865, and in 1867, became the first company west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States to smelt iron. The company failed after a few years, but was reorganized as the Oswego Iron Company in 1878, and again as the Oregon Iron and Steel Company in 1883. With the addition of a larger furnace, the last incarnation of the company prospered, reaching peak production in 1890. By 1894, however, pressure from cheaper imported iron combined with the effects of the Panic of 1893 forced the company to close its smelter. The company continued to operate a pipe foundry until 1928, and until the early 1960s, existed as a land management company, selling its real estate holdings which expanded the city of Lake Oswego.
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George Rogers Park is a 26-acre (11 ha) public park at intersection of Ladd and South State streets in Lake Oswego, Oregon, United States. This park contains two baseball fields, a soccer field, access to the Willamette River, a memorial garden area, restrooms, a playground, and two outdoor tennis courts. The park also features the Oregon Iron Company Furnace, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Department of the Interior. The park is named after George Rogers—a City Councilman—in appreciation for his devoted efforts to develop and maintain the grounds.
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