According to George Wolfford's "Carter County, A Pictorial History" "Pactolus [Iron Furnace] was built in 1824 while the county [Carter] was still Greenup by Joseph McMurtry, a Mt. Sterling physician, on the site of a forge built in 1815 by iron pioneer Richard Deering. Deering had a small cupola designed to melt out-of-use salt kettles into hollow ware. The furnace featured steam boilers made by putting two such kettles together, but high pressures exploded them, scalding several black workmen. The first blast, in 1825, lasted 66 days and damaged the stack. Later, pressure for the blast came from wooden tubs driven by waterpower from Little Sandy. William Ward purchased half-interest in 1824 and after 1826 the two partners shared the plant in alternate months through 1830. It was then leased to William Boyd for four years, and after the winter of 1833-34, operations ceased." Sherry J. Lowe -----Original Message----- From: Randal W Cooper [SMTP:rwcooper@kellnet.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 8:38 AM To: KYCARTER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [KYCARTER] Iron Furnaces of Carter County, Kentucky Dear Researchers of the Carter County, Kentucky Mailing List, I am interested in learning more about the iron furnaces of Carter County, Kentucky, especially those in existence in the 1840's and 1850's. An 1872 list named four iron furnaces for Carter County, namely: Boone Furnace, Mount Savage Furnace, Star Furnace and a fourth unnamed furnace. These four were operating in 1872. But according to a newspaper article posted on the Carter County website, before these four furnaces was Pactolus Furnace, the first iron furnace in eastern Kentucky. Pactolus Furnace, established in 1792, was located two miles north of Grayson on the Little Sandy River. This furnace had gone out of blast by 1842. Does anyone know if Pactolus Furnace ended its days by an explosion? Thank You, Randal W. Cooper