Scotia Iron Furnace
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 38° 02.147 W 091° 11.809
15S E 658244 N 4211319
Scotia Iron Furnace is located in the Huzzah State Conservation Area southeast of Leasburg, Missouri.
Waymark Code: WM95A
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 03/18/2006
Views: 23
The Scotia Iron Company of St. Louis built the furnace in 1870 and operated
it until 1880. John G. Scott was president and general manager of the Scotia
Iron Company. The furnace at Scotia was the fifth in Missouri built by Scott.
The company began construction of the charcoal iron furnace in January 1870,
shipping materials eighty miles by rail from St. Louis to Leasburg, then moving
them with teams another seven miles south to the site. The furnace was 35 feet
square at the base and the stack was 41 feet high. The bosh, or working opening
at the base, was nine feet, four inches high. The furnace went into blast on 24
August 1870. Daily capacity of the furnace was twenty tons of pig iron; 2,300
tons were produced during the first month of operation. Scotia furnace operated
intermittently until it was finally taken out of blast in February 1880. Most
of the machinery at the site was shipped to the new furnace of the Nova Scotia
Iron Company, a new firm that included some of the former principals of the
Scotia Iron Company.
As can be seen in the pictures the furnace is now in a deteriorating state.
The conservation department has fenced the furnace off with barbed wire.