Iron ore in my area?

[Isaac Myers]

I've recently attempted to jump on the "make your own iron/steel" bandwagon, and hope that I might get some pointers here. I live in southeastern Ohio, and evidenced by several standing (and less-than-standing) furnaces in the area, there was definitely a substantial amount of iron production at one time. I looked into mindat, ODNR's website, and a few other resources, to see if there were records of any iron mines in the area--but with very little success. Yesterday, I spent the day driving around, and walking along river/creek edges, and found about 25 lbs of partially magnetic...stuff.

It's only magnetic in parts, and in those parts, fairly weakly.

I'm wondering if this is worth collecting--it seems that there's plenty of it--or are there better resources to look for? Or a good place in North/Western West Virginia to go collecting?

[Alan Longmire]

Magnetism is always good! Looks like bedded hematite, usually 0.35- 0.7% iron. Go for it!