Catoctin Furnace: Academic Research Informing Heritage Tourism

Summary

For more than 42 years, the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, Inc. has maintained heritage programs in the village of Catoctin Furnace. These activities balance the needs of the ongoing village lifestyle with those of the received visitor experience. Updating traditional seasonal events while adding leisure amenities involves constantly balancing funding sources and message.  However, the tourism experience must be rooted in solid academic research.  Current research on the African-American Slave Cemetery is examining and testing ancestral origins, characterizing living conditions, and searching for living descendants.  The goal of this research is to reconstruct the history of the furnace’s laborers and to recognize their contributions to the success of the ironworking community.  A further goal is to reach out to contemporary African American communities in order to involve them in the interpretation and presentation of history at Catoctin Furnace, in the surrounding region, and at other early industrial complexes in America. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016   •
• Heritage From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Study Enslaved and Free Workers in an Iron-making Community

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 942