“Burnt: The Hidden Charcoal Industry of 19th Century Blue Mountain” – Benjamin Carter, Ph.D.

Between 1828 and 1886, thousands of acres of forest along the Blue Mountain west of the Lehigh Gap were cut and burned to make charcoal to fuel the iron industry. Muhlenberg College archaeology professor Dr. Ben Carter and his students will describe how they have employed remote sensing and field work to identify more than 700 charcoal hearths, a network of roads and seven collier’s huts, where charcoal makers lived for much of the year, on top of the mountain.