There was plenty of iron ore, limestone, water, and coal locally, but the major problem the company faced was transporting finished products to market.
Production reached 75 tons per week, and local iron needs were quickly satisfied.
Some products were shipped out by wagon, including such items as dowels for the walls of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O).
The adjacent casting house made farming implements, mine car wheels and track, and household utensils.
The Tilley Field was on Hugh Weir's property, on the east side of a fork of Laurel Run.
From 1848 through 1858, ore came from the area around Pompey Smash (Vale Summit), on the south side of Dan's Rock Road.
The heated air then entered the blast furnace through two big water-cooled nozzles called tuyeres.
The furnace complex was visited by Caspar Wever, Superintendent of Construction for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), in June 1839.
A civil engineer born in Hannover, Germany, Detmold had entered the U.S. at age 16 while en route to Brazil to join the Army.
This line connected with the Eckhart Branch Railroad, constructed by the Maryland Mining Company.
Detmold moved on to direct construction of the Exhibit of Industry, at the Crystal Palace in New York, which opened in July 1853.
After experimenting with a horse-powered tram road, the company realized that a rail line, built down the Georges Creek Valley toward the Potomac River at Westernport, would be the answer to the transportation issue.
The rail line was unfortunately too late to provide the needed market access for the Lonaconing Iron Furnace.
[1] However, it provided an impetus for the mining industry and for the construction of the railroad, and served as a model for a similar iron working facility built at Mount Savage.