June 1994

Cast House Foundation of the Iron Furnace at Johnson City

Here's the southeast corner of the foundation of the cast house used by the Cranberry Furnace in Johnson City. The foundation is there, but the sand floor used for making the pig iron castings is long gone. In fact, this and the blacksmith/grinding building are all that are left of this once thriving furnace. If you look closely, you can see my trusty yard stick (I never go shooting without my yard stick) standing there right on the corner of the foundation. The foundation was stone and it has a formed concrete top edge. I'm not sure that the concrete was original to the cast house, but it could have been. Steel girders that held up the metal shed cover were bolted into the stone. The girders are still attached but the tops have been been removed with a cutting torch. This whole deal is at the end of Fairview St., right beside Johnson City Chemical Co., makers of chemical fertilizer. This area is covered in mica, as the furnace site was turned into a mica crushing operation after the furnace itself was dismantled.