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Forest Dale Iron Furnace

blast furnace in Brandon, Vermont

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ25005224 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Forest Dale Iron Furnace was a 19th-century iron smelting facility in Brandon, Vermont. Located off Vermont Route 73 east of the village of Forest Dale, it operated between 1810 and 1855, closing due to competition from higher quality and more efficient furnaces. Now reduced to archaeological ruins and the remains of its main furnace stack, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The site is marked by a historic marker on Vermont 73.

Description and history

The Forest Dale Iron Furnace is located in eastern Brandon, on the north side of Vermont 73 just east of Furnace Road. The site now consists of a generally level area, much of it grassy, with the principal visible portion, the furnace stack, set in the woods just north of the field, accessible via a trail off Furnace Road. The stack is a square stone and brick structure, about 60 feet (18 m) tall, 32 feet (9.8 m) square at the base, tapering as it rises. Three sides have arched openings with stone voussoirs at ground level, about 8 feet (2.4 m) wide at the mouth, that taper as the recede into the structure. A central chamber is lined with brick. Other features of the site include a raceway and wheelpit, originally fed by waters from the nearby Neshobe River, and some stone retaining walls.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Forest Dale Iron Furnace” as blast furnace in Brandon, Vermont. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1810, 1855, 1974—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1810. The account is most persuasive where Forest, Dale and Iron can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as blast furnace in Brandon, Vermont. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25005224. Authority coordinates are 43.832, -73.048. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1810, 1855 and 1974.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Forest Dale Iron Furnace” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.