Jeff Orton

The “New” Old Iron Foundry Sign

History 2700

Service Learning Project

Dr. Earl Mulderink

December 4th 2001

Background information:

“Iron we need, and Iron we must have.” These are the words of Utah’s first territorial governor Brigham Young during a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah on the 22^nd of May 1855. In his speech, Brigham Young, who was also the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, urged young adult male members of the church to join the Deseret Iron Works Company in the fight for Utah’s economic self-sufficiency. This self-sufficiency was to come from the large amounts of high quality iron that was found throughout Utah’s Great Basin. However, by this time the effort to achieve a self-sufficient economy was more than halfway over.

While American colonists took their final steps towards independence in 1776, Spanish explorers in the area known as the Great Basin discovered iron. No Spanish settlements were placed in the Great Basin due to the shortage of Spanish resources at the time. In 1821 Spain lost all of the land that makes up Mexico, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Utah and the southern half of California to the newly formed independent Mexico. Then, just twenty-seven years later, Mexico lost all of the land north of the present-day Mexican border to the United States concluding the Mexican War in 1848. In the previous year, Brigham Young had just arrived in the Salt Lake valley with a large group of Latter-day Saints in hopes of escaping the religious persecutions that took place throughout northeastern America.

Brigham Young knew that it would take more than a few crops and few dozen cattle for this land to become a self-sufficient territory in an already industrialized and growing nation. He knew that Utah needed an economic backbone. With consistent reports of the Great Basin being flooded with iron, Brigham Young immediately sought out a plan that would settle the areas of the Great Basin. In return Young established mining efforts that would extract the iron from the area. This was to be called the “Iron County Mission”.

Despite harsh sub-zero temperatures and the threat of local Indian attacks, due to the very shaky relationship between the Mormon settlers and the Native Americans, the 119 iron missionaries and their families began the journey to establish Iron County on December 15 1850. Then, just less than one month later on January 13, the journey seemed to be at an end upon reaching Center Creek Canyon (Parowan). Immediately, reports of poor soil and possible volcanic activity provoked further exploration south.

With this exploration came the discovery of the Iron Springs, which is near the Three Peaks area just west of Cedar City. This discovery created some conflict between the church and the settlers. To most people it just didn’t make much sense to build a settlement more than twelve miles away from all of the iron deposits.

 On October 6^th 1851 at general conference, George A. Smith, who was appointed the head of settlement operations, proposed that there be an additional settlement based at the mouth of Coal Creek to run the iron foundry. His proposal was rejected, but a compromise was reached by placing the iron foundry near the Iron Springs. In April of that same year, large amounts of coal were found in the canyon near the mouth of Coal Creek. The discovery of the large amounts of coal, which could easily provide enough fuel to run a blast furnace, heeded a “reevaluation” concerning the future plans of the Iron County Mission. Then on May 15 1851, Brigham Young gave Smith the okay to settle the second colony near Coal Creek. Later that year on November 10^th Henry Lunt led a fairly large sized group twelve miles south to settle the banks of Coal Creek. Then just ten months later on September 30^th 1852 Cedar City produced its first bar of pig iron, thus creating Utah’s first source of economic security.         

The Project:

               Upon talking to York Jones on September 13^th 2001 about a possible service-learning project, we both decided that Henry Lunt Park could use a new sign. Henry Lunt Park is located at 400 N. 100 E., which is the former location of the Deseret Iron Works Foundry. This foundry produced large amounts of iron between September 30^th 1852 and late October 1858. This park was dedicated on November 11^th 1978, which was Cedar City’s one hundredth and twenty-seventh birthday. By obtaining a painting that consists of the foundries original ground plan from Janet Seegmiller of Southern Utah University Special Collections on September 17^th 2001, a vision of the proposed new sign became clearer. The creation of this sign became a process that consisted of four phases and over forty hours of work.

            First, soon after receiving a copy of R. D. Adams’s painting of the Deseret Iron Works Company; a sketch was transferred onto a three-quarter inch thick, thirty-one by twenty-one inch piece of maple pressboard. This was done by increasing the size of the copy of the picture, then securing it on the board with tape and cutting all the major lines with a sharp box cutter. This process alone took about four hours. Once the thin lines were cut into the board, the process of wood burning began, thus creating the darker thicker lines. This process took over ten hours, due to the fact that wood burning requires lots of time and patience. One little mistake and the project could be ruined. Thus concluding phase-one of this project.

Phase Two consisted of giving color to the wood. This was done by applying several different kinds of wood stains one color at a time. For every color used, masking tape had to be placed over opposite sides of the lines that were being stained. This prevented any stain from leeching onto undesired areas of the wood. Once again this became a very time consuming process, because once stain gets onto any undesired areas it becomes virtually impossible to fix, hence the word stain.  The various colors of stains that are included in the picture are: red mahogany, golden oak, dark walnut, fruit wood, colonial cherry, colonial maple, and early American. Shading became possible by using darker stains that were combined with the lighter stains. A total amount of hours spent on staining this picture is unknown, but two full weekends were consumed performing this one task.

Once all of the lines were filled in, two coats of acrylic wood sealer were applied to both sides of the wood. Then two more coats of acrylic lacquer were sprayed, thus creating a weatherproof seal on the surface. Once the lacquer had dried, the picture was encased between two pieces of plexiglas. Then all remaining cracks were sealed with silicon caulking to further weatherproof the wood.

To complete phase two of this project, a one-inch frame was placed around the Plexiglas. This was done by ripping down an eight-foot long board of pacific maple to a one by three-quarter-inch thick piece. Next, the piece of pacific maple was detailed by running it through a shaper with a number fourteen roman oji bit. The piece of detailed pacific maple was then stained with red mahogany. Once the stain dried, lacquer was then sprayed to create a smooth waterproof finish. By using a chop saw to cut the piece of wood at forty-five degree angles, the wood created a border around the picture. Glue and clamps were used to hold the frame in place.

The next phase of this project was to turn the picture into a functional sign. First, a box was built around the picture. The box consists of a three-quarter inch thick, four-inch piece of pacific maple. This eight-foot board was shaped on one edge with a half-inch round-over router bit. Then, an eight inch wide, quarter inch deep dado was cut into the eight-foot board half and inch from the rounded edge, which created a slot for an additional piece of Plexiglas to slide into. The eight-foot board was then stained with red mahogany and lacquered.

When the lacquer set; the box was constructed around the picture, similar to that of the picture frame. The difference was that the picture was placed one inch behind the dado instead of placed flush with the surface. This left an inch and a half of space behind the picture, which created room to attach the posts and mantelpiece later in the project. Three of the four sides were attached to the picture using three-inch grabber screws. Before the fourth side could be screwed on, the Plexiglas had to be slid into the slot. Once the Plexiglas had been inserted and the fourth side fastened onto the picture, the signposts could be put on.

The building of the two signposts consisted of oval cedar posts that were stained to match the picture frame and box. Then these posts were sealed and lacquered to slow down the weathering process. The posts were then attached to the box using four-inch grabber screws. The screws were placed through the inside lip behind the picture and then driven into the sides of the posts.

The mantle piece found on top of the sign was made from a solid two-inch thick piece of pacific maple. The step design was fashioned by the shaper using a step-down bit. The soon-to-be mantle piece was then sanded, stained, sealed and lacquered. It was then attached to the top of the box with lots of glue and four-inch grabber screws. Now that the posts and mantle had been secured to the picture and its box, the back panel could be put on.

The back panel of the sign is a piece of three-quarter inch thick maple pressboard, which is the same kind of wood that is used as the picture’s canvass. The back was mounted on with heavy-duty wood glue and three-inch grabber screws. Each screw was predrilled and counter sunk to prevent any cracking, which may speed up the weathering process. Then the back was stained with red mahogany. Instead of sealing and lacquering the back as a separate piece, the whole sign was lacquered twice as one piece. With the top and back in place, the sign seemed to be somewhat functional. But it still did not say much of anything.

The last step in the phase to create a fully functional sign came with the addition of the two smaller signs hanging from the bottom of the bigger sign. The upper sign, which reads: “OLD FOUNDRY” originally read: “OLD IRON MILL” had to be changed because, as York Jones put it. “It was not a mill! It was a foundry!” With those words, the sign was immediately changed. The bottom sign reads “1852” which was the year that the Deseret Iron Works Company started producing iron.

 The processes of creating these two smaller signs involved just as much patience as any of the previous steps, thus meaning that it was very important to concentrate on what exactly was being done. These two lower sign’s letters and numbers were hand drawn, and then cut out with a hand router. Anyone that has performed this kind of task knows that it is very important to keep his or her hands very steady on the router and to go slowly. Just the smallest mistake could turn something very nice into a trashed project or even worse, missing fingers.

Once the letters were cut out with the hand router they were then sanded to remove any uneven areas in each of the letters. Then the letters were painted with two coats of white outdoor house paint. Once the paint was dry (not until the next day) the board was run through a big sanding machine to take off the paint on the surface of the board, but not inside the letters. Then, the remaining surface of the board was stained red mahogany to match the rest of the sign. After the signs were sealed and given an extra few coats of lacquer, they were ready to be hung from the larger sign. They were hung using eyebolts and chain links, which will maybe prove to be somewhat vandal proof (we hope). The completion of the sign itself concludes phase three of this project.

The final phase of this project would be the placement of the new sign at Henry Lunt Park. On Dec. 3^rd, 2001.York Jones informed me that before the sign could be erected it would have to be approved by Bob Tate. Bob Tate is the Director of Parks and Recreation here in Cedar City. York Jones reassured me that Bob Tate would be coming by to view the sign sometime between December 4^th and December 9^th. During this conversation York Jones mentioned a little bit about a couple more service learning projects that may be popping up in the near future. The two that seem pretty interesting are the proposed bridge that would link Henry Lunt Park with the second project, which is a proposed trail route on the park’s opposite side of Coal Creek.

 Who will benefit from this project?

Although Cedar City has people like York Jones, Janet Seegmiller and Dr. Earl Mulderink to keep the spirit of this town and its history alive. There is just so more that can and should be done to preserve this town’s heritage. Hopefully with the help of my project and a possible school or local newspaper article, others can learn more about the place they call home just as I have. Also, I have always known that my roots run deep in this town, but now thanks to the research that has been performed prior to this project by the Shirts’ family with the publishing of, A Trial Furnace, I now know exactly how deep.