The Cedar Point Blast Furnace

“The Cedar Point Iron Company’s Furnace No. 1 at Port Henry, Essex County, NY.” By T.F. Witherbee, which appeared in Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Volume 4, 1876, excerpt:

“The site selected for the furnace was, at the time of commencing working, October, 1872, entirely covered by navigable waters of Lake Champlain.  A coffer-dam was first built of cribs of round timber filled with stone, forming three sides, while the shore answered for the forth. Considerable excavating was done with a steam dredge; a hole being left for it to pass out. The opening was then built up, and the cribbing banked up with blue clay for the bottom of the lake, to render it water-tight and the dam pumped out; the remainder of the excavating being done by hand. All of the foundations, with the exception of the elevator tower, and fifteen feet of the east side of the hot blast, rest on the Potsdam sandstone, which forms the shore line, dipping into the lake at an angle of 15 degrees.”