{"nrhp_refnum":"73001546","name":"Hope Furnace","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"5 mi. NE of Zaleski on OH 278","address_restricted":false,"city":"Zaleski","county":"Vinton County","state":"OH","lat":39.332000092000044,"lon":-82.34017650299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-05-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Hope Furnace is the ruin of a charcoal-fueled iron furnace stack, located about 5 miles northeast of Zaleski along Ohio Route 278 in Vinton County, Ohio. It operated from 1854 to 1874.","why_significant":"It is one of two surviving charcoal iron furnaces in Vinton County and represents the Hanging Rock Iron Region, a major iron-producing area during the Civil War era. The iron industry shaped the region's roads, railroads and settlement, and villages like Hope vanished when the furnaces closed.","narrative":"Hope Furnace is the surviving stack of a charcoal iron furnace a few hundred feet from Ohio Route 278, about five miles northeast of Zaleski in Vinton County. It produced iron from 1854 to 1874 and is one of only two remaining furnace ruins in the county. The stack is built of sandstone, rectangular in plan and tapering upward, with a lining of clay-bonded sandstone or fire brick. It stood 35 feet tall, and in 1870 it produced 2,827 tons of foundry iron. A community of several hundred people once surrounded the furnace, with workers paid in scrip redeemable at the company store. When operations ended, the village and its buildings disappeared. The furnace is part of the Hanging Rock Iron Region, which ranked among the nation's main iron-producing areas during the Civil War era and spurred road and railroad development. The site is now state-owned, near the Lake Hope recreation area.","period_of_significance":"19th Century; specific date 1854","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as a deteriorated, altered ruin; only the furnace stack remains. The site is state-owned, part of public land, and open to the public without restriction.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.264222-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/73001546.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001546/61513ce6c3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001546/61513ce6c3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jaknouse","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_furnace.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Jaknouse</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_furnace.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991812","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Furnace","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5899258"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/vinton-county/hope-furnace-73001546/"}