The Hope Furnace is a historic blast furnace in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located along State Route 278, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of the village of Zaleski,[1] it is one of two extant iron furnaces in Vinton County. Between 1854 and 1874, the furnace was used to smelt iron ore, using coal or charcoal for fuel. It is a rectangular structure, built of sandstone and shaped like a truncated pyramid.[2]
Like many other iron furnaces in southeastern Ohio, Hope Furnace was surrounded by a community of at least three hundred residents at its height. The production of iron and the supply of the materials required for iron smelting required a large number of workers, and during a furnace's years of operation, it was the center of a temporary community. No buildings from the community remain to the present day: when the furnace closed, the workers dispersed, and the buildings collapsed or were demolished.[2] Although the buildings are gone, many artifacts still remain in the soil surrounding the furnace; most significant are the many pieces of slag that litter the ground.[3]
