OUTWOOD — Maneuvering a hundred feet up, certified arborist Benjamin Fedor carried out his dissection.
His skill with a chain saw Friday was what volunteers hoped would be the best bet to protect the last standing iron furnace in Schuylkill County.
Fedor of Parkway Tree & Landscaping, Ephrata, was hired by a group of volunteers involved with the Swatara Furnace Preservation Project. His mission was to cut down a sycamore tree whose dead limbs had precariously teetered above the stone Swatara Furnace.
Using a 36-ton truck crane from The Crane Man Inc., Chalfont, Fedor was hoisted to the top of the tree shortly after 9 a.m. He went to work, sectioning off pieces of the tree for cutting and then making sure the pieces were secured as the crane lowered the cuttings to the ground and away from the furnace structure. Fedor said he was expecting to remove the tree in 13 sections at the top, and another four or five pieces for the bottom.
Volunteers with the preservation project then agreed to cut up the remaining logs, reducing the overall cost.
Several volunteers watched Fedor’s progress, and continued to assist with clean up around the furnace. Among them were Pat Shipe, Bob Pankake, David Ravegum and Brian Harwick.
Recently, members of the Oak Grove Sportsmen’s Association, Old Forge Fishing Club, Pinegrove Historical Society and Friends of Memorial Lake and Swatara State Parks joined together with the state Game Commission and City of Lebanon Authority in an effort to preserve the furnace.
“I saw how the stones were moving, and how the gaps were getting bigger on the left-side wall,” Harwick, a member of the Oak Grove Sportsmen’s Association, said.
In addition to the sycamore tree, whose trunk was about 30 feet away from the furnace, there were small trees growing on top of the structure itself, as well as thick vines snarling up its side.
“And the only way to keep those vines in control is to mow them,” Harwick said.
Harwick, Outwood, had contacted fellow volunteers to seek their input on ways to preserve the existing, historic structure. Shipe, from neighboring Suedberg and a member of the Old Forge Fishing Club, said volunteers had already removed several truck loads of debris from the site.
The Swatara Furnace is located below the Christian E. Siegrist Dam, several hundred yards north of Old Forge Road along the Mill Creek in Pine Grove Township. The furnace is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and categorized by the National Parks Service and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission as having statewide historic significance.
According to a release shared by the preservation group, “The furnace was constructed in 1830 by Simeon Guilford and Dr. George Eckert and operated until 1860. Simeon Guilford was employed as an engineer for the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania and was the engineer in-charge of construction of the Union Canal Tunnel at Lebanon, currently a National Historic Landmark, and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Dr. Eckert was a medical doctor whose family was involved in the iron industry. In 1860 when the furnace operation was abandoned, a forge was constructed that operated through 1875. It is currently on the property of the Game Commission and the Lebanon City Authority.”
The site looked differently than it does today, volunteers confirmed. There was a building for the charcoal, a building for the iron ore and a building for the limestone, and there was a bridge that came across from the bank. There was a roof over the top of the furnace. Workers would bring the material out — the iron ore, the charcoal, the limestone — and dump it in layers. Once they had the furnace fired, they’d just keep going as long as they could until they had to clean the furnace out again. There was a big water wheel there that drove the bellows, or a drum, and that’s where the air came from and on the other side, in the arch was where the pig iron came out, Ravegum said.
Preservation priorities are to not only remove the tree that could have potentially fallen on the furnace but to also remove all invasive vegetation, small trees and brush growing on and around the structure; fence the wheel pit and tail race; and stabilize the structure.
In the immediate future, a historic preservation engineering firm will be consulted for a total preservation/restoration plan. They may consider putting a roof on the furnace. Total cost for tree removal, fencing and consulting services are estimated to be about $15,000. Other than the large tree removal that required professionals, all work will be done by volunteers.
The preservation group got a grant from Williams Pipeline for $1,000 and volunteers came up with another $1,000 to pay for Friday’s tree removal. The bid was originally for $4,200 for removal of the sycamore tree and two other dead ones. Volunteers, however, agreed to cut the wood up, so Fedor gave them a price of $2,000 for his work.
If the structure was totally going to be restored, the group would have to get a long-term lease from the Game Commission. That would make the group eligible to receive grants for the project, according to Ravegum.
Engineers are still trying to determine the furnace’s safety. The preservation group reminds visitors to please refrain from climbing on the structure.
Anyone wishing to help may send donations to Pinegrove Historical Society, P.O. Box 65, Pine Grove, PA 17963. Checks may be made to Pinegrove Historical Society — write “Preservation of the Swatara Furnace” in the memo line.