PPFF Fall 2006 Final
PENN’S STEWARDS News from the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation The Legacy of Pennsylvania’s Pyramids Fall 2006 hen visitors come today to a State Park like Greenwood piedmont region surrounding his colony of Philadelphia, and with W Furnace, they find an environment lush with green, the air lush forests and vast mineral wealth that would propel his “Holy scented with the smell of pine trees, and a myriad of animals and Experiment” to an industrial titan. plants. Many believe they are in a land untouched by the industrial press of the 19th century. Everywhere else, they may have heard, Early settlers found rich iron ore deposits in Pennsylvania, but did the land was stripped and plundered, but here is a “pristine island not immediately exploit them. It wouldn’t be until 1716, that Tho- of wilderness” that somehow escaped that destruction. But as visi- mas Rutter built the first forge about 40 miles from Philadelphia, tors walk around, they see old stone structures and odd-looking along the Schuylkill River. Four years later, he erected Pennsyl- glassy rocks, and that stone pyramid…what’s that all about? vania’s first blast furnace, the Colebrookdale Furnace, a short dis- tance away. Both works were located in what today is Berks Others come, curious about that stone pyra- County. Soon, ironworks were being estab- mid—tucked away in a corner of the Green- lished throughout Pennsylvania and other wood Furnace State Park. They may have had colonies, much to the dismay of the English a grandparent who brought them as a child, Ironmasters.
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