Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainSurviving iron-furnace ruins in the Sandy Lake area of Mercer County, PA, tied to the 19th-century Mercer Iron and Coal Company, and the focus of local ghost lore about workers said to have died there.
Reeds Furnace area, off Sandy Lake roads, Sandy Lake, PA 16145
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
There is no developed attraction here. The furnace ruins lie on rural/wooded land in the Sandy Lake area; respect all private-property and posted-land restrictions before visiting.
Access
Limited Access
Rural wooded and hillside terrain with old industrial ruins; uneven, brushy ground and no developed paths.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1864 · Site of 19th-century iron-making associated with Reeds Furnace and the Mercer Iron and Coal Company · Ironworks runoff historically affected the ecology of nearby Sandy Lake before the creek was rerouted (1865-1867) · Surviving place-names and ruins document Mercer County's charcoal-iron era
Northwestern Pennsylvania was dotted with charcoal-iron furnaces and ironworks in the nineteenth century, and the Sandy Lake area of Mercer County was no exception. Local geography still preserves the name 'Reeds Furnace,' and historical records connect the area's iron-making to the Mercer Iron and Coal Company.
An 1864 county map shows a brook connecting the Mercer Iron and Coal Company to the southern shore of Sandy Lake; by 1873 the watercourse had been altered to skirt the lake. Researchers studying Sandy Lake's ecology have noted that pollutant runoff from the long-defunct ironworks, with its careless waste disposal, once brought aquatic life in the lake to a temporary halt -- and that the relocation of the offending creek during railroad construction between 1865 and 1867 helped the lake's ecosystem recover.
The Shadowlands submission that generated this entry describes 'the furnaces' as an old steel mill that burned more than fifty years ago with many fatal accidents. That framing is garbled: the documented industrial heritage of the site is iron-making (charcoal furnaces and the Mercer Iron and Coal Company works), not a modern steel mill, and HauntBound could not verify any specific fire or fatalities. Only ruins remain today, and the surrounding land is rural with varied ownership.
Sources
The paranormal tradition at the Sandy Lake furnaces draws from two independent lines of reporting. An anonymous Shadowlands submission claims the furnaces were an old steel mill site where many workers died, and that the site is haunted by their spirits; winter visitors describe footprints appearing in snow, shadows and shapes leaping between trees, a chill that deepens descending the hill then warms near the furnace, and a feeling of being chased out.
According to geocaching community accounts independently documented at the site (Geocaching.com, cache GC42YZ7, titled 'Haunted Reeds Furnace'), firsthand visitors have reported a girl approximately 10-12 years old in a white or pink dress said to have been struck by a train on a historic bridge near the site, a woman in white, black-robed figures, orbs in photographs particularly near old storage tanks, disembodied voices including commands to 'get out,' temperature fluctuations, vehicle malfunctions (engines failing, lights ceasing to function), a large solitary footprint in fresh snow with no surrounding tracks, and a 'ghost dog.'
The two traditions describe somewhat different phenomena and different historical backstories, consistent with independent origin. The underlying iron-furnace ruins are real and documented; the ghost stories are unverified folklore, but the paranormal tradition rests on more than a single source.
Notable Entities
The 'furnaces' of local lore correspond to the historic Reeds Furnace / Mercer Iron and Coal Company ironworks in the Sandy Lake area of Mercer County. Only ruins remain; visitors should confirm land access and avoid posted property.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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