Endor Iron Furnace

At 35 feet tall, the Endor Iron Furnace represents, both literally and figuratively, the pinnacle of this area’s 19th century industrial revolution. Iron and coal had been found in the area and mined to varying degrees. In 1861, the Endor Iron Company was founded and construction of the Endor Furnace began. Production began in 1863, with the pig iron the furnace produced being shipped by rail down to the armory in Fayetteville where it would be used to make arms for the Confederate war effort. A second life as a producer of iron for train wheels was envisioned in the 1870s but the iron ore played out, and with it the area’s future as the “Pittsburgh of the South.”