Bellefonte Furnace - Legacy

Legacy

Bellefonte Furnace did not live up to the sanguine expectations of its original investors. Bellefonte, where iron furnaces had prospered since the 18th Century, appeared to enjoy all the advantages necessary for successful iron production: ample iron ore to be mined, limestone in abundance, easy access to coke from Connellsville and the Snow Shoe region by rail. Why, then, did the furnace struggle financially during its initial period of operation? Gephart thought the key lay in railroad rates, so he built the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania to break the PRR's monopoly on traffic from Bellefonte. Certainly Bellefonte Furnace was more successful under his leadership, shipping over the Central Railroad, then under the Collins brothers and Shoemaker, successful businessmen in other areas.

However, by the end of the furnace's lifetime, other problems had become apparent. The pig iron market was already in decline by the time the furnace was built in 1888, with prices rarely rising above $22 per ton until World War I. But it was the rise of the integrated steel plant that really sealed the fate of Bellefonte's furnaces. As steel producers increasingly made their own iron and converted it to steel on site, the utility of merchant pig producers such as Bellefonte Furnace dwindled. Easily mined, high-grade Mesabi Range iron ore negated the advantage of the local deposits in the Nittany Valley; in fact, it was the availability of Mesabi ore that led Carnegie to sell the Scotia mines to Gephart.

Gephart's prestige and ability to attract investors were able to keep Bellefonte and Nittany Furnace and the associated railroads and ore mines active. But this was an Indian summer of prosperity for Bellefonte. The lime industry, though increasingly important for the region, was unable to sustain the prosperity that iron had brought to Bellefonte, making it the county seat and the cradle of governors Curtin and Beaver. The closing of the iron furnaces represented but one step in the decline of Bellefonte and its replacement by State College as the principal community of Centre County.