Smelting Furnace

Standing as the last of its kind in the lead region, this underground lead smelting furnace with its 200 feet underground chimney was built in the 1840s and used throughout the 19th century. The long underground chimney created a fierce draft that allowed rapid smelting of lead. The pigs or plats of lead ore, usually weighing from 10 to 70 pounds, each were then loaded onto wagons and hauled to the Port of Potosi, where flat keelboats, some times referred to as flatboats, made of logs, shipped the mineral to St. Louis for further processing. Click here to learn about the ongoing restoration project.

1848 Log Cabin

A log, gabled house common in the area in the early 1800s has been preserved and remodeled here. Furnished by a plentiful spring, two rooms and a loft comprised the original cabin built by Alonzo Howe in 1848. The Gay Bradleys lived here 43 years as keepers of dozens of domestic cats about the house and grounds until Mr. Bradley's death in 1964. The property was acquired by the Harry Hendersons, and a spectacular treehouse has been added on the bluff that overlooks the log house.