Lock Ridge Park is
a park built around a historic iron ore blast furnace. The
park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works. The first furnace
at the site was built in 1868 by the Lock Ridge Iron Company, on the line of
the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad near its junction with the East
Pennsylvania Railroad. The company was taken over the next year by the Thomas
Iron Company, and a second furnace put in blast shortly thereafter. The iron
industry in the Lehigh Valley was then flourishing, and the Lock Ridge furnaces
(designated No. 7 and No. 8 by Thomas Iron) were typical of the time. They used
a hot blast to burn anthracite fuel (rather than the hitherto common charcoal)
a technology brought to the United States by the company's founder, David
Thomas, in 1839. However, by the early 20th century, the furnaces were, despite
sporadic improvements, technologically out-of-date, and were reputedly the last
anthracite iron furnaces to operate in the United States. President B.F.
Fackenthal, of Thomas Iron, recommended they be decommissioned upon his
resignation in 1913.
However, Fackenthal's successor, Ralph Sweetser, pursued
the opposite course. No. 8 furnace stack was rebuilt in 1914, and No. 7 the
following year. Concurrently, anthracite was replaced by coke as a fuel for the
furnaces. However, modernization was not enough to save the Lock Ridge
furnaces, and iron was last made there in 1921.
The furnaces were sold to William Butz, who dismantled
most of the buildings for scrap iron and lumber. However, the masonry
structures were allowed to remain, albeit in a decayed condition. The slag
dumps on the property were crushed, screened, and used for roofing and fill by
the Lehigh Slag Company until 1958. Little-used since the closing of the
furnaces, the Catasauqua and Fogelsville's line through the site was torn up in
the 1940s. With industrial operations on the property long complete, it was
donated by the Butz family to Lehigh County for use as a park.
