Biohazard Cleanup Near North Cornwall Commons Cornwall, PA

Cornwall is a borough in Lebanon County that exists almost entirely because of iron: it grew up around one of the most famous iron ore deposits in America.

Cornwall was first settled by Peter Grubb in 1734, a Chester County stonemason who discovered exceptionally pure magnetite iron ore in three hills here.

In 1742 Grubb built the Cornwall Iron Furnace and named it after his father's birthplace, Cornwall, England.

The Cornwall iron mines were worked continuously for 236 years, until June 30, 1973, producing about 110 million tons of iron ore.

At one time the Cornwall mine was the largest open-pit mining operation in the world.

The Cornwall Iron Furnace produced iron from 1742 until 1883 and survives today much as it looked when it closed; it is described as the only intact charcoal-burning iron blast furnace in its original setting in the Western Hemisphere.

The furnace complex was deeded to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1932 and is now a National Historic Landmark open to the public as a museum.

Cornwall's iron industry supplied cannon, munitions, and iron products for every American war from the Revolution through Vietnam, according to the borough's own history.

Cornwall had a population of 4,604 at the 2020 census, and at 9.7 square miles it is geographically the largest borough in Pennsylvania, larger in area than the state capital, Harrisburg.