The Antrim Iron Company was an

iron works An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...

that operated in

Mancelona, Michigan Mancelona ( ) is a village in the Northern Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of Mancelona Township, the village is located within Antrim County. Its population was 1,344 at the 2020 census. History In 1869, Perry Andress e ...

from 1886 to 1945. The site of the iron works was south of Mancelona, between

U.S. Route 131 US Highway 131 (US 131) is a north–south United States Highway, of which all but 0.64 of its 269.96 miles (1.03 of 434.46 km) are within the state of Michigan. The highway starts in rural Indiana south of the state line as a sta ...

and the railroad tracks.

History

In 1882, an organization by the name of "John Otis & Company" built a large charcoal furnace on the site. The company also platted a town around the furnace, naming it "Furnaceville". Soon after this, the

Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854. Beginnings After grappl ...

built a station at the town. The furnace flourished, and in 1886 a group of businessmen from

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

bought out the company, and renamed the company Antrim Iron Works and the town Antrim. A large

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

and iron works was built on the site, and the new company began doing business.

Methods of manufacturing and transportation

In the beginning of the corporation,

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

was hauled in from various lumber camps around

Northern Michigan Northern Michigan, also known as Northern Lower Michigan (known colloquially to residents of more southerly parts of the state and summer residents from cities such as Detroit as " Up North"), is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. A popul ...

to be harvested for iron products at the plant. After many years of buying material to create the iron with, the company decided to obtain its own timber, and built a small railroad branch (named the Mancelona North West Railroad) heading 2 miles west from the company site. With this spur line, the company logged its own lumber and hauled it in on its own railroad, proving to be quite self-sufficient. This lasted until the 1920s, when the lumber ran out and other ways were developed to obtain the iron.

The war

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the company became extremely busy. With the vast need for materials for the war effort, the factory was working around the clock trying to produce enough products for the orders they were getting. This held true throughout most of the war.

Closing, demise, and current status

After the war ended, the company quickly slowed down, and closed in 1945. The factory stood abandoned for over forty years, until it was torn down in the mid-1980s. Today all that is left of the old furnace consists of a few foundations, a small outbuilding, and a former railroad siding. The company dumped its waste in a pond behind the building, which years later led to

water contamination Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Wate ...

in the town. The pond, called "Tar Lake", was cleaned up in the mid to late 1990s.

References

{{coord, 44, 52, 59.5, N, 85, 04, 30.7, W, region:US-MI_type:landmark, display=title Industrial buildings and structures in Michigan Ironworks and steel mills in the United States