{"nrhp_refnum":"77001485","name":"Clifton Furnace","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"SE of Clifton Forge off U.S. 220","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clifton Forge","county":"Alleghany County","state":"VA","lat":37.809673333000035,"lon":-79.79708188699993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A cold blast charcoal iron furnace built of rough-hewn stone in Rainbow Gap on the west bank of the Jackson River, about half a mile southeast of Clifton Forge, Alleghany County, Virginia. It was erected in 1846.","why_significant":"The furnace is the only surviving structure of a once-busy iron operation that concentrated a significant part of Alleghany County's mid-nineteenth-century iron industry. The site gave its name to nearby Clifton Forge, later a major railroad junction. The adjacent land may also hold archaeological evidence about Virginia's early iron industry.","narrative":"Set into a steep bank above the Jackson River in Rainbow Gap, this cold blast charcoal furnace is built of large, rough-hewn rectangular stones that taper toward the top. The base is about thirty-four feet wide and the flue opening about eight and a half feet. A forge making wrought iron operated here by 1822, and in 1846 its owner, William Lyle Alexander, had the furnace built to produce pig iron. It turned out two and a half to three tons a week for eight years, then went out of blast in 1854 as demand shifted to wrought iron. A revamp in 1874 did not bring it back into use, and it was abandoned in 1877. The operation gave Clifton Forge its name. Today the overgrown stonework is the only surviving structure of the works and sits between U.S. 220 and the railroad. The surrounding ground may contain foundations and artifacts.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Receives little or no maintenance and is much overgrown, but survives in a generally good state of preservation; the furnace was abandoned in 1877. It sits within a state highway right-of-way.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.189915-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/6794/41679468/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/77001485.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001485/9d5e41e6df-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001485/9d5e41e6df-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_Furnace_from_north.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_Furnace_from_north.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679468","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Furnace","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712188"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/alleghany-county/clifton-furnace-77001485/"}