Smail Presents Iron Furnaces to Genealogical Society

Author Byron Smail addressed the monthly meeting of the Blair County Genealogical Society to speak on about his book "Iron Furnaces of the Cove."

Smail said that he wanted to get the history out there for the people of the Cove and their ancestors who worked those furnaces and mining.

"There wasn't a whole lot of information on them," Smail said. "Curiosity made me want to look into it."

Smail did this and tried to piece together how those in the furnaces and mining worked, how they were run and who ran them.

"I thought that it would be nice for the families of the Cove to know where they came from," Smail said.

Smail added that the project is a community project. He said that all of the profits go to the libraries.

"I figured that I would make a nice project out of it and do something nice for the community," Smail said.

Smail plans on writing more, with a particular focus on history.

"History is a hobby of mine," Smail said. "I am always intrigued by it, especially local history. I like to see how people did things back in the day and how they worked and the industries."