Katahdin Ironworks


  • Address: Katahdin Iron Works Rd
  • Vicinity: E of Hundred-Mile Wilderness at Silver Lake
  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Structure


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1820/00/00 Judge Moses Greenleaf Work In the Maine woods, Moses Greenleaf discovers iron ore on the side of a small mountain at the head of tide on the Penobscot River, 50 miles north of Bangor, the booming lumber capital of the East.
1845/00/00 The Katahdin Iron Works is constructed to produce pig iron. The surface limonite is smelted into 40-150 lb ingots or pigs.
1846/00/00 David Pingree Owner David Pingree of Salem receives the iron works, village and the land around as payment for a debt.
1856/00/00 David Pingree Owner Pingree's iron works cease operations. The cost to transporting the pig iron by wagon to the port of Bangor was too much and the pig iron varied in quality which gave the firm a bad reputation in its main market, Boston, Massachusetts.
1868/00/00 Pingree's iron works are bought by a group of businessmen headed by Thomas N Egery of Bangor. Incorporated in 1868 as the Piscataquis Iron Works Company, they try unsuccessfully to have a branch railroad line extended to the iron works.
1873/00/00 From 1873-1890, 200 workers are employed at Katahdin Iron Works. The company town has 2 large boarding houses, Town Hall, school, post office, company store, photo saloon and two farms producing hay for the horses.
1873/00/00 The old stone blast furnace is placed back into service after a fifteen-year hiatus.
1876/00/00 Owen W Davis Work Owen W Davis and four others incorporated as the Katahdin Iron Company, lease the land from Piscataquis and assume operations. Mr Davis represents the best of the new managerial class which arose in the years following the American Civil War.
1880/10/20 Owen W Davis Inventor Davis presents a paper at the annual meeting of the United States Association of Charcoal Iron Workers in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on desulphurized ore produces a superior iron while using less fuel.
1882/00/00 Owen W Davis Work Davis buys a cargo of Spanish iron ore which is extracted at a low cost due to the proximity of the deposits near the sea and that many vessels are searching for return cargo to the United States.
1882/09/15 Owen W Davis Work The Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway extends a railroad from the town of Milo to the Katahdin Ironworks.
1883/00/00 Owen W Davis Work Davis and George D Colby design and build a gas furnace fueled by worthless charcoal braize, an residue which accumulated from the charcoal in the coal sheds, which save about 15,000 cords of wood and annually the work of two or three men.
1888/12/00 Charles D Stanford Work Charles D Stamford and Fred W Hill, two businessmen in Bangor, buy controlling interest in the Katahdin Charcoal Iron Company. They soon take over operation and push Owen Davis aside.

Data »

Particulars for Katahdin Ironworks:
Other Description Bee Hive
Place Attribute Company Town
Criteria Historic Event
Area of Significance Industry
Historic Use Manufacturing facility
Disposition Reconstructed Property
Owner State
Sight Category Structure



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 69000011
Resource Type:
Owner: State
Architectural Style: Other
Attribute: Bee Hive
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: State
Area of Significance: Industry
Applicable Criteria: Event
Criteria Consideration: Reconstructed property
Period of Significance: 1875-1899, 1850-1874, 1825-1849
Significant Year: 1843, 1890
Historic Function: Industry, processing, extraction
Historic Sub-Function: Manufacturing facility
Current Function: Recreation and Culture
Current Sub-Function: Museum

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