Above: A tribute to the men who contributed to the iron work in Danville is on permanent display outside the Montour County Courthouse on Mill Street.
The iron industry dominated Danville for most of the 19th century. However, toward the dawn of the 1900s, steel began replacing iron as the preferred metal of construction, and the iron manufacturing began to wane. The Montour Iron Works are long gone. Danville continues to recognize its iron heritage, however. At the Montour County Courthouse, a monument displays a mine car loaded with iron ore, such as would have been brought up from the mines to the iron works, and stands as “a tribute to those men and their con- tribution to the industrial revolution.” The industry is also part of the annual Danville Heritage Festival, which used to be called the Iron Heritage Festival, conducted every year on the streets of Danville. Join locals for living history pre- sentations, live music, train rides, fireworks, and other activities to celebrate the spirit of Danville, past and present. Keep an eye on the website for details about next year’s event, which will be held September 8 - 10, 2023.
Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute that same year. Iron production be- came the area’s biggest industry, and when Montour County was established in 1850, this is likely at least part of why Danville was named the county seat. Over the next several years the process was refined and improved; the discovery of several sources of high-quality iron ore in the Great Lakes region during the middle of the 19th century led to the creation of even better quality T rails. More rails were produced at Montour in the 1850s than any other rolling mill in the country. By 1859, the Sunbury and Erie Railroad (later the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad) had finally overcome its various financial difficulties and begun work on its contracted plan to construct a railroad link- ing the two communities of its original name, and they ordered 30- foot rails from the Montour Iron Works for this purpose.
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