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The Hope Furnace is located just down the road from Lake Hope State Park outside of McArthur, Ohio. It's located off State Route 278.

The Hope Furnace was founded in 1854 and it remained in operation until 1875. It produced some of the best iron in the world. The iron made at these furnaces was used to make weaponry for the Civil War. The Hope Furnaces operated 24 hours a day and could produce up to fifteen tons of cast iron each day. However, shortly after the end of the Civil War the furnaces were no longer used.

The Hope Furnace is supposedly haunted by one of the company's watchmen. On a dark, stormy night in 1870 one of the watchmen was blinded by some lightning that struck close by. He couldn't see where he was walking, and he fell into one of the large iron furnaces. The hot, molten iron ore burned through his body and he literally melted! Today people claim to see his ghost walking around the remaining furnace carrying a lantern on stormy nights.

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