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Old Irontown Chimney

Continuing my series of ghost town photos scanned from old slides, this is one of the most intact structures in Old Irontown, Utah. Originally called Iron City, the town was an attempt to provide iron products for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) from nearby open pit mines. The town was founded about 1868 and had a "few hundred" residents in 1875. It had a blast furnace, two charcoal kilns, school, Post Office and the usual commercial buildings. This chimney accompanies interesting ruins of a molding house, which I assume cast smelted iron into molds. The town never was very successful because transportation was too expensive from this remote location, and there was an economic downturn in 1874. Iron production stopped in 1876 and by the 1880's Old Irontown was deserted. Most structures were destroyed by people removing brick and rock buildings to use in their own houses, so this chimney and one kiln are the only intact structures among several other ruins. Old Irontown is known as Utah's first ghost town. Photo taken in 2008.

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Uploaded on January 26, 2021