80 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED 8TATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [1885. 



with finely -broken or comminuted cliarcoal to the depth of two feet 

 fully ; a memorial of the fuel used. 



We were informed that about half a mile below Falling- Creek, near 

 James Eiver, there is a low piece of ground known to this day as Iron 

 Bottom, where may be found plentifully what is known as bog iron on 

 the surface. It will be recollected that the iron ore already cited as 

 being mentioned by Sir Thomas Gates was described as " lying on the 

 surface of the ground." We have also learned since our visit to Fall- 

 ing Creek that at a point upon its banks distant inward about two 

 miles from the site of the iron- works there are numerous pits some five 

 or six feet in depth, which it is evident from the mineral character of 

 their surroundings furnished the crude ore for the original and ill- 

 starred works. 



In June, 1S70, a freshet, the result of previous heavy rains, overflowed 

 and broke the dam at a point known as Old Forge, on the Jones branch 

 of the Chickahominy Eiver, in New Kent County, Virginia. • Trees 

 were overturned, a building undermined, and a gorge cut, uncovering in 

 its route the remains of an early forge or smelting furnace. The foun- 

 dation, portions of a chimney, an anvil, a hammer, and six bars of iron 

 were exposed to view — one of the last bearing in raised letters the in- 

 scription '' B. G., 1741," which were supposed to indicate the place and 

 date of manufacture ; the first of which was assumed to have been Bear 

 Garden furnace, Buckingham County, Virginia. The forge is marked 

 on Fry and Jefferson's Map of Virginia, 1765, as Holt's Forge. It must 

 have commenced operations at a period not much later than 1741, if 

 not as early, and was continued until some time during the Revolution- 

 ary war. 



Tradition assigns to Col. William Byrd (the second) the credit of 

 erecting and hrst working the forge, and Mr. William H. Christian, 

 of Richmond, states that in his boyhood he was informed by an old 

 negro man, named Guthridge, that his owner, one Jones, who operiited 

 the forge until its destruction, stationed him, then a youth, upon an em- 

 inence to watch the movements of the British soldiery who were in the 

 section. Their approach being descried, the buildings were hastily tired 

 and earth thrown upon the ruins to conceal the tools, &c. After the war 

 bar iron was produced so cheaply in other sections that no efforts were 

 made to revive the works. A grist-mill being erected in late years 

 near the site of the forge, and driven by Avater from the i)ond used for 

 'its operations, was first called Providence Mills, but such was the force 

 of custom that the residents of the section would retain the old desig- 

 nation. Forge; hence the new and old name has by common consent and 

 ttsage been united in the comx)onent term l*rovidence Forge. 



