Mayville was founded in 1845 by Alvin and William Forster and Chester and S.P. May. Iron ore was discovered by these men approximately four miles south of Mayville. A quantity of the ore was taken to the nearest iron smelter in Mishawaka, Indiana, in 1846.

In 1847 Judge Alonzo Kinyon promoted a company chartered as the Wisconsin Iron Company. Construction of the first furnace was started at Mayville in 1848 approximately 500 feet southwest of this marker. In 1849 the furnace cast its first molten iron, yielding about 12 tons per day, using charcoal from native hardwoods for fuel.

The industry prospered for 79 years, modernizing with the times to an eventual 800 tons of iron per day capacity. It once occupied this entire marker area as well as adjacent acreage. Due to curtailed demand for pig iron, the plant closed permanently in 1928. The last owner was the Mayville Iron Company.

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