A web search by this blogger has yeilded a 1949 report in "Science News Letter," about Arlington Mallery's investigation of prehistoric iron furnaces in Ohio and Virginia. I recall reading this publication in my high school library back in the early post World War II days.
The headline of this story was "An America Iron Age?" and the subhead was "Iron objects found in prehistoric sites in this country have rasied the question did America have iron before Columbus?"
The lead paragraph of this report was a question: "Did pre-Columbian First Families of Virginia and Ohio know how to smelt iron, make nails. horseshoes and tools of iron?" The Virginia furnaces and iron tools associated with them as investigated by Mallery are discussed in detail in Chapter Six of my book "Iron Age America."
This report concludes by saying "The finding of this ancient iron brings up the whole question of whether America did have an Iron Age before Spanish and English colonists brought iron tools and weapons with them..."
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