The Maryland Iron Festival: Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19 from 10am to 5pm
This free event from The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society features blacksmithing, woodturning, and casting demonstrations, music, garden and trail tours, children's activities, "feats of strength" games, food trucks, beer, wine & craft beverages and more!
CATOCTIN FURNACE, Md., Sept. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc. will present the third annual Maryland Iron Festival in person during the weekend of September 18 and 19. In partnership with Cunningham Falls State Park, Catoctin Mountain Park, PopUp Frederick, Harriet Chapel, Frederick County Public Libraries and Visit Frederick. This will be an entirely outdoor, open-air event. Masks will be required for all attendees and will be provided free to all. (Please note: entry to enclosed activities will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test done within 48 hours. This excludes DNR/state-owned landscapes.)
Families and festival attendees of all ages will enjoy blacksmithing, woodturning, and casting demonstrations; ranger-led tours in Catoctin Mountain Park; tours of historic Harriet Chapel, "Feats of Strength" games and challenges; an artist and maker market; children's activities; activities from the Frederick County Public Libraries; Scales and Tales birds of prey program; an interactive display from Hagerstown and Frederick Railway Historical Society and more! The Museum of the Ironworker, featuring our new forensic facial reconstructions, will be open to one-way, limited group traffic (masked and vaccinated or negative COVID visitors only).
The event will feature live music from The Caswells on Saturday at 1pm and on Sunday family favorite Slim Harrison performs at 11:00am and 2:30pm. Sunday also includes a performance of Braided Lives, a music and poetry program by HALO Quartet and Elayne Bond Hyman at 1pm. Bluegrass music will delight visitors throughout the weekend.
Food trucks including Uptown BBQ, Yumi Food Truck, and Snowball Waterfalls will be onsite over the weekend as will DNA Events bar who will serve beer, wine, and craft beverages. A bake sale with homemade delicious treats from heirloom recipes will be set up for the weekend.
Festival visitors can also enjoy a hike along the Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery Interpretive Trail, which links the furnace to the historic village with a trail extension into Cunningham Falls State Park and visits to Catoctin Furnace's historic kitchen and pollinator gardens.
Catoctin Furnace was built by workers owned or employed by the four Johnson brothers in order to produce iron from the rich deposits of iron ore found in the nearby mountains. At least 271 enslaved people of African ancestry made up the bulk of Catoctin Furnace's earliest workers. In the decade before the Civil War, European immigrants began replacing the enslaved and freed African American workers as it was more economical to hire cheap labor than support an enslaved workforce. Descendants of the immigrants still live in the village.
The iron furnace at Catoctin played a pivotal role during the industrial revolution in the young United States. The furnace industry supported a thriving community, and company houses were established alongside the furnace stack. Throughout the nineteenth century, the furnace produced iron for household and industrial products. After more than one hundred years of operation, the Catoctin Furnace ceased production in 1903.
In 1973, the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc., was formed by G. Eugene Anderson, Clement E. Gardiner, J. Franklin Mentzer, and Earl M. Shankle to "foster and promote the restoration of the Catoctin Furnace Historic District…and to maintain the same exclusively for educational and scientific purposes…to exhibit to coming generations our heritage of the past."
Today, the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc. is undertaking groundbreaking research, including bioarchaeological research of the African American cemetery in Catoctin Furnace. In partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and the Reich Laboratory for Medical and Population Genetics at Harvard University, this project is analyzing ancient DNA and the human genome of revolutionary-era enslaved African American workers at Catoctin Furnace. Such research, in conjunction with other technologies such as stable isotope analysis, could tell us where these workers were born, where they lived throughout their lives, and what constituted their diet. We believe that every life mattered, and every past matters now. By studying and disseminating the results of this research, we hope that people everywhere will get to meet some of these early workers and understand the critical roles they played in the development of our young nation, as well as appreciate the varied trajectories of their lives.
An important part of the historical society's preservation work are its seasonal festivals
and heritage tourism holiday events. This year we are hosting:
Fall Fest – Friday, October 8 & Saturday, October 9: Spend a day celebrating autumn in historic Catoctin Furnace at our Annual Fallfest! Watch apple butter boiling over an open fire and
purchase a pint fresh from the kettle. Free Admission.
Spirits of the Furnace - October 16: "Spirits of the Furnace" is a guided night tour
through the historic Catoctin Iron Furnace and Village, with stops in historic structures and
along the landscape. Refreshments will be served. Visitors are encouraged to bring a
flashlight and wear shoes appropriate for walking on uneven terrain. Admission is $10 for
adults, $5 for children 12 and under.
Traditional Village Christmas - December 4: Decorate a fresh wreath with bows, bells,
ornaments and pinecones! Enjoy hot cider, homemade soup, and delicious baked goods.
Shop for wonderful locally made crafts, jewelry, and art. Kids activities and a special visit
from Belsnickel! Free.
****Events may be shifted to virtual format if local health conditions warrant. Please call or check our website to confirm all events.
Mark your calendar now for the fourth annual Maryland Iron Festival in 2022. On Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, we will be sharing the rich history of ironmaking within the historic village and buildings, in Cunningham Falls State Park, and throughout Catoctin Mountain Park.
Special thank you to event sponsors: First Energy and Woodsboro Bank.
The event is free but donations are welcome. All proceeds will be used for the ongoing restoration of the historic village structures, a critical need. For more information contact [email protected].
Media Contact
Theresa L. Donnelly, The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc., (443) 629-8661, [email protected]
SOURCE The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc.
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