Katahdin Iron Works is a Maine state historic site located in the unorganized township of the same name. The state's property contains Gulf Hagas, a canyon on the West Branch of the Pleasant River that is a National Natural Landmark. About a mile and a half downriver is another national landmark, "The Hermitage", a roughly 35-acre (14 ha) grove of large Eastern White Pine trees that is preserved by The Nature Conservancy. In 2003, the Appalachian Mountain Club acquired a 37,000-acre (15,000 ha) property upriver from Gulf Hagas that it named Katahdin Iron Works.
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In 1843, a limonite gossan, a form of iron ore, was discovered on nearby Ore Mountain. The gossan was the primary source of mined ore. It overlaid a pyrrhotite deposit of iron sulfide ore. Assuming the depth matches the known surface area, this deposit would be among the world's largest sulfide deposits. However, the rural location and poor quality of the ore continues to make it uneconomic to mine.
Piscataquis Iron Works Company enlarged the mining operation in 1876 to the most significant iron works in the state. Eighteen beehive kilns converted wood to charcoal for a 55-foot high rock blast furnace producing about 2,000 tons of pig iron annually. A company town was constructed where the West Branch of the Pleasant River flows out of Silver Lake with a town hall, school, post office, cooperative store, and homes for 200 families. The 19-mile (31-km) Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway was built in 1881 to connect the town with what would become the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad at Milo, Maine.[1]
| Number | Builder | Type | Date | Works number | Notes[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amoskeag Locomotive Works | 4-4-0 | 1852 | originally Maine Central Railroad #43; named Black Moria; became Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad #6; retired 1899 | |
| 2 | Hinkley Locomotive Works | 4-4-0 | 1868 | 867 | named Argyllite; retired 1887 |
| 3 | Manchester Locomotive Works | 4-4-0 | January 1884 | 1172 | purchased new; became Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad #7; then Bangor and Aroostook Railroad #209; scrapped 1914 |
The Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railroad was leased to the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad in 1887. Annual conversion 10,000 cords (36,000 m³) of wood to charcoal exhausted local forests by 1888. Iron with lower sulphur content became available from Michigan. Most of the smelting equipment was shipped to Nova Scotia in 1890. The Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad became the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in 1891. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad discontinued train service to Katahdin Iron Works in 1922; but Katahdin Iron Works postmistress Sara Green operated a flanged-wheel automobile over the abandoned tracks until the rails were removed in 1933. The state has restored the blast furnace and one of the beehive charcoal kilns; these and some of the foundations for other buildings are all that remain of the mill and village.[1]
Records from the mill can be found at the University of Maine's Fogler Library.
Gulf Hagas is a two and a half mile (4 km) long water-formed canyon. The river falls 500 feet (150 m) in the canyon, including multiple waterfalls. It is sometimes called the "Grand Canyon of the East". It is an eight mile (round trip) side trip off the 100-Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail.
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