Idaho, Bear Lake County, near Montpelier
![]()
Westward-bound emigrants entered Idaho after crossing Thomas Fork Valley. They soon encountered the climb and descent of Big Hill, witnessed nature's curiosities at Soda Springs, and discovered willing traders at Fort Hall.
In 1843 wagons first rolled past Fort Hall to face the harshness and desolation of the Snake River Plain. Dust, sagebrush, lava rock, mosquitoes, a burning sun, cold nights, and a concerned Native American population made the journey an arduous one. Yet, these pioneers continued on to establish ocean-to-ocean nation.
Prior to the discovery of gold, California-bound emigrants followed the main Oregon Trail to Raft River before turning south on the California Trail. Gold seekers soon opened new routes in an attempt to reach their destinations sooner. Hudspeth's Cutoff (1849) directed traffic west from Soda Springs. The Salt Lake Alternate (Hensley's Cutoff, 1848) enabled travelers to obtain supplies in Salt Lake City before continuing their journey. These routes joined in the City of Rocks area and headed west through Granite Pass.
As the number of emigrants increased, lands along the trail became barren of grass and wood, and water sources often became tainted. Consequently, alternate routes were explored and utilized. The South Alternate (1843), Northside Alternate (1840's), Goodale's Cutoff (1852), Lander Road (1858), and Kelton Road (1869) all became heavily utilized by emigrants and early Idaho settlers
(Settlements & Settlers • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Westward-bound emigrants entered Idaho after crossing Thomas Fork Valley. They soon encountered the climb and descent of Big Hill, witnessed nature's curiosities at Soda Springs, and discovered willing traders at Fort Hall. In 1843 wagons first rolled past Fort Hall to face the harshness and desolation of the Snake River Plain. Dust, sagebrush, lava rock, mosquitoes, a burning sun, cold nights, and a concerned Native American population made the journey an arduous one. Yet, these pioneers continued on to establish ocean-to-ocean nation.
Prior to the discovery of gold, California-bound emigrants followed the main Oregon Trail to Raft River before turning south on the California Trail. Gold seekers soon opened new routes in an attempt to reach their destinations sooner. Hudspeth's Cutoff (1849) directed traffic west from Soda Springs. The Salt Lake Alternate (Hensley's Cutoff, 1848) enabled travelers to obtain supplies in Salt Lake City before continuing their journey. These routes joined in the City of Rocks area and headed west through Granite Pass.
As the number of emigrants increased, lands along the trail became barren of grass and wood, and water sources often became tainted. Consequently, alternate routes were explored and utilized. The South Alternate (1843), Northside Alternate (1840's), Goodale's Cutoff (1852), Lander Road (1858), and Kelton Road (1869) all became heavily utilized by emigrants and early Idaho settlers
(Settlements & Settlers • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
"the steepest and longest ascent we have made on the route..." - James Wilkins 
Gladeville (present-day Wise) served for a time
in 1862 as the headquarters for Confederate Gen.
Humphrey Marshall, who directed operations in
Southwest Virginia. Despite its relative isolation
in this part of the state, the community here
endured numerous encounters with Union and
Confederate forces during the Civil War. A Federal
raid here on June 1, 1862, led to the capture of
preacher and county clerk of court Morgan T. Lipps.
Lipps's response to demands that he offer a
sermon to his captors was that “I don’t cast
pearls before swine.” He ultimately relented and
was released. The Federals soon departed but
burned part of Gladeville first.
Look carefully! From April to October, you might spot Pennsylvania’s most common water snake. The non-venomous northern water snake likes to be close to water and good hiding places, like rocks, logs, and brush piles.
Before the age of railroads, the basic ingredients of iron production needed to be nearby. That explains why furnaces were built in rural settings surrounded by the necessary raw materials.
A source of iron ore was essential.
Today's serene and peaceful fields belie the carnage that occurred here on July 21, 1861, when Union and Confederate troops clashed at the first major land battle of the Civil War - the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). The Heaviest and most sustained fighting occurred on this ground, resulting in over 5,000 American casualties.
It took hundreds of workers to produce iron, although only a few actually worked at the furnace. Fillers dumped carts of ore, charcoal and limestone into the seething tunnel head. The founder, assisted by a keeper, ordered ingredients, determined the amount of air to be blasted into the furnace and decided when to draw off the iron, usually every 12 hours. Guttermen directed molten iron into channels hoed into the sandy, cast house floor. Some furnaces employed moulders to make castings for iron stoves and utensils.
Like its companion monument on Henry Hill, this obelisk was constructed by Union soldiers at the close of the Civil War. It honors the Federal dead of the Second Battle of Manassas. The monument was dedicated on June 11, 1865. Souvenir hunters later stripped the monument of the field artillery shells that originally adorned it.
The ironmaking process was well-known and cold-blast furnaces built in 18th and 19th century America mimicked designs first used 400 years earlier. A thick stone furnace, shaped like a flat-topped pyramid, served as the place of transformation, where minerals became metal.
The iron furnaces at Greenwood dominated this otherwise rural landscape. Beginning in 1834, and for most of 70 years, one or both of the two furnaces located here brightened the night with a fiery, multi-colored glow. For miles around, wood-choppers harvested vast tracts of forest. Colliers then slow-burned the logs into charcoal. Miners dug tons of iron ore from mines nearby, and wagons loaded with limestone lumbered along rustic roads from quarries over the mountain.
By the 20th century, iron furnaces like these belonged to the past. The growing cost of transporting raw materials and finished products to and from rural furnaces reduced profits. The forest, the source of wood for charcoal fuel, had been depleted. Iron production, increasingly linked to the demand for steel, shifted to larger, more economical furnaces located in cities.
(side 1)
Railroads needed the high quality cast iron produced here. Although hard and brittle, it could withstand great weight. Shipped to Freedom Iron Works, the parent plant 12 miles away, Greenwood Works’ cast iron became locomotive tires, railroad wheels and axles, piston and pump rods.
Replacing stack No. 1 erected 1833 about 22 feet north. Erected 1860 reconstructed 1935, dedicated Aug 8,1936 to Samuel T. Moore. Through whose efforts this stack was preserved
The Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia built #143 for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1905. #143 was used to switch freight cars in rail yards around Charleston, South Carolina. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was the first railroad to serve the Ft. Myers area beginning in 1904. Similar steam engines worked A. C. L. tracks in the Ft. Meyers area.
Edgar Allan Poe and his family lived in a farmhouse on this site in 1844 where he finished writing "The Raven".
This monument is dedicated
