Catoctin Furnace at Cunningham Falls State Park
Standing remains of Catoctin Furnace Stack #2

Catoctin Furnace Historic District remembers the American Industrial Revolution. From 1776 to 1903 various enterprises mined the rich ore banks near Catoctin Mountain, smelted it in furnaces, and cast raw pig iron and iron implements of every description. The Johnson furnace was in blast by 1776 and records indicate that the operation produced ammunition for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Today visitors can explore “Isabella,” the remains of Catoctin Furnace Stack #2, built by Jacob Kunkel in 1853. Isabella, a steam-operated, cold-blast charcoal furnace, produced 3,300 tons of pig iron annually in the 1890s. Southeast of Stack #2 are the workers' cottages. More than 50 tenant cottages existed at Catoctin in the 1870s. Today less than a dozen of these simple dwellings, constructed of log or stone, are identifiable.

On the west side of U.S. 15, just south of Little Hunting Creek, the remains of race ditches, iron control gates, stone and mortar dams, a spillway race, and a race pond are still visible. The race ditch that provided water for Stack #2 and Stack #1, the latter totally demolished, existed west of Catoctin Manor House, or Iron Master's House, originally a two-story structure built in 1800.