Palmyra Furnace

Palmyra was a river port before it was an iron town. Morgan Brown laid it out and the legislature established it in 1796, and in 1797 it was named a port of entry, the only one in the west until Cincinnati got one two years later. In late January 1863 the Confederate general Joseph Wheeler took position on the Cumberland here to stop Union ships bound for Fort Donelson. None came, so he attacked the fort with his cavalry, failed, and retreated after heavy losses.

What the plaque says

Palmyra Furnace circa 1799 Seven hundred and fifty feet to the north are the remains of the Palmyra Furnace. It is the first recorded ironworks in Montgomery County and the second oldest iron works in the Western Highland Rim Iron Belt. Such iron manufacturing was among the earliest forms of industrial enterprise in Tennessee. Natural resources of iron ore, streams, limestone, timber, and the Cumberland River for transportation, allowed Montgomery County to be a major producer of pig iron.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center — 9.4 mi
  An intact earthwork fort above the Cumberland and Red Rivers in Clarksville, begun with forced Black labor and later a contraband camp and recruiting center for Black soldiers.
• Dunbar Cave State Park — 13 mi
  A Clarksville cave with 800-year-old Mississippian artwork, later a resort and Roy Acuff's dance stage, now a state park with seasonal guided tours.
• Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge — 18 mi
  An 8,862-acre refuge on the Cumberland River floodplain near Dover, made in 1962 to replace habitat Lake Barkley flooded, wintering tens of thousands of waterfowl.
• Fort Donelson National Battlefield — 21 mi
  The earthen fort above the Cumberland River where Grant's demand for unconditional surrender ended the February 1862 siege, with the Dover Hotel, a national cemetery and the story of the freedom seekers who came to the lines.

More markers nearby

• Streight's Raid — 0.2 mi
• Horace H. Lurton — 9.2 mi
• Pioneer Newspaper — 9.3 mi
• Montgomery County Courthouse — 9.3 mi