{"nrhp_refnum":"74001376","name":"Moratock Iron Furnace","other_names":["Moody's Tunnel Iron Works","Moratock Mining and Manufacturing"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"E of Danbury off NC 89","address_restricted":false,"city":"Danbury","county":"Stokes County","state":"NC","lat":36.40760656600003,"lon":-80.19956849499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-07-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A granite iron smelting furnace on the Dan River east of Danbury, Stokes County, North Carolina, believed to have been built in 1843 as Moody's Tunnel Iron Works. It is the only visible remnant of the Moratock furnace and forge complex.","why_significant":"It is one of the best preserved of the few eighteenth and nineteenth century iron smelting furnaces known in North Carolina. It is an excellent example of the stonemason's skill and one of the few surviving structures of the antebellum iron industry in the state. Its history also reflects the state's small-scale iron production and its Civil War-era revival.","narrative":"Rising beside a bend in the Dan River east of Danbury, this granite iron furnace is the only visible remnant of the Moratock furnace and forge complex. Built of rough-quarried, unmortared granite blocks, it is a trapezoidal cube about 28 feet square at the base and 28 feet high, with arched vaults on three sides leading to a fire-brick-lined interior. Ore, charcoal and limestone fed the forced-blast furnace, and a waterwheel powered the bellows through a dam, tunnel and flume. Nathaniel Moody and John Pepper are believed to have built it in 1843 as Moody's Tunnel Iron Works, although it may replace their original furnace. Later operators included Reuben Golding, who helped form the Moratock Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1862, and Jonathan Heck, who reactivated it after 1875. It is considered one of North Carolina's best preserved early iron furnaces and a fine example of stonemasonry. The Taylor family held the site until 1973, when it passed to Stokes County for a park.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":"Nathaniel Moody and John Pepper (believed builders, 1843)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as good and unaltered on its original site; deeded to Stokes County in 1973 for use as a county park.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:56.244423-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/80/7222/47722280/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/74001376.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001376/f6a8ee9e0c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001376/f6a8ee9e0c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.5","author":"Berean Hunter","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moortock1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Berean Hunter</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moortock1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722280","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moratock_Park","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6909295"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/stokes-county/moratock-iron-furnace-74001376/"}