Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Water Quality Survey

Garfinkel, April; Sharpe, William

Report to the National Park Service. INTRODUCTION: Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site (NHS) is located in a valley in southeastern Pennsylvania, near the headwaters of French Creek. The pastoral environment of the reconstructed iron furnace belies its past, as Hopewell Furnace was, from its construction in 177 1 to its demise in 1883, a highly productive source of cast-iron goods and unrefined “pig” iron. Located at the border of Berks and Chester counties, about fifty miles northwest of Philadelphia, Hopewell Furnace NHS lies in the heart of a region that is steeped in early American history. The U.S. Government acquired the land surrounding Hopewell Furnace in 1935, and Hopewell Furnace NHS was created there on August 3, 1938. The locale was selected for restoration and preservation because it serves as an excellent representative of “iron plantations” which dotted the Pennsylvanian landscape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Regional availability of resources was a crucial consideration when choosing furnace locations during that era. Important resources included extensive stands of hardwoods for charcoal production, mineable outcrops of iron-rich rock, and substantial flowing water in the furnace’s vicinity. Water was diverted from a stream channel or lake to the furnace’s waterwheel, which powered “blast machinery” that fanned the flames within the furnace. Supplies of water were not always adequate to power the waterwheel at Hopewell Furnace NHS. Two headraces were used to divert water from three streams on the plantation grounds. The East Headrace captured water from Spout and Baptism Creeks, and the West Headrace drained water from the furnace pond, now overlain by Hopewell Lake. Water supplies were also utilized for domestic needs, livestock consumption, irrigation, and refrigeration, since a population of ironworkers and their families inhabited the plantation. Perennial springs located on a hillside near the furnace likely furnished cool drinking water that was a necessity in the sweltering confines of the ironworks. Production at Hopewell Furnace NHS was also facilitated by the presence of raw materials. Extensive shallow deposits of magnetite-rich rock were located nearby, providing easily accessed iron ore for the smelting process. The forestland in the area held large stands of chestnut and black oak trees used in the production of charcoal. A constant quantity of charcoal was required to maintain sufficiently high furnace temperatures. The availability of these materials permitted the remarkable output of Hopewell Furnace NHS during the height of its productivity. Anthropogenic stresses have begun to tax the quality of the natural resources of Hopewell Furnace NHS. Water resources at Hopewell Furnace NHS have been disturbed or threatened by a variety of activities such as upstream development, turbidity during high flows and contamination from leaky septic systems. This report has been developed as a continuation of a previous management plan that identified these activities and estimated the stresses inflicted upon Hopewell Furnace NHS’s water resources. Water quality parameters reported in Sharpe and Neff (1993) will be compared to similar data from the year 2002.