GMF’s charcoal lesson

NORFOLK — A group of about 25 people stood a mile or so along a dirt road in Great Mountain Forest and gazed at a replica charcoal mound on Friday, Oct. 11.

“You’re standing in an industrial legacy,” said historian Dick Paddock.

Matt Gallagher, GMF’s director of programs and operations, said the replica mound is about half the size of the real thing, and is cut away in order to show visitors how the mounds were constructed.

Paddock said that during the roughly 200 years (1734-1923) that high-quality iron was produced in Northwest Connecticut, the fuel that made it all possible was charcoal.

Burning copious amounts of wood to get the desired charcoal for the iron-making process was painstaking, arduous, and dangerous work, Paddock said.

And the industry needed a lot of it. Beckley Furnace in East Canaan used 1 ⅜ acres worth of wood per day.

Paddock pointed out that charcoal was a renewable energy source.

The iron companies bought up forests, cut them, burned them and replanted them on a 20-year rotation.

One consequence of that is today, “there are thousands of acres of vacant land” in the Northwest Corner.

“Because of an industry!”

Gallagher credited retired GMF forester Jody Bronson for the idea of a replica charcoal mound, and thanked Dan Bolognani of Housatonic Heritage (who was on hand) for supplying a grant for design and construction.

The mound was built by a team of interns last year, and survived a July 2023 storm that washed out much of the dirt road leading past the mound.