Boiling Springs brings together the history of iron production, Children's Lake, and trails through fields and wetlands. A restored blast furnace, a gallery in a brick church, and a self-guided tour through the village add different historical perspectives to its natural attractions. When planning your visit, you can decide whether to focus mainly on the village's history, its industrial past, or hiking and biking.
Village History and the Iron Industry
The Village Artisans Gallery is housed in a renovated brick church dating from 1875. This building brings together a historic architectural style and a cultural aspect of the village. Boiling Springs was added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 1984. This designation gives the individual buildings a broader historical context within the community.
The Iron Furnace in Boiling Springs is a restored blast furnace built around 1760 for the Carlisle Iron Works. Today, the site around the furnace is a community park. The ironworks produced iron goods; during the American Revolutionary War, they manufactured ammunition and projectiles. The furnace's history therefore includes both early iron production and its specific role during wartime.
Another way to explore the village's history is the self-guided Boiling Springs Self-Guided Walking Tour. It leads through the village and includes 22 stops. This format has a different focus from the history of the ironworks: it draws attention to multiple stops around the village rather than concentrating on a single building.
Children's Lake and Outdoor Trails
Children's Lake is a seven-acre artificial lake. It was dammed in the 1750s to supply power to the ironworks. About 30 natural springs feed the lake, bubbling to the surface from underground caverns. Its history thus connects the local landscape with the industrial use of water.
A section of the Appalachian Trail runs along Children's Lake. The lake is therefore both a reference point for the history of the ironworks and a landmark along a hiking route. Those interested in the Appalachian Trail will find this specific connection to the area here, while the other activities described explore different trails and landscapes.
The Fielding Belt Trail is 2.2 miles long and connects Spring Meadows Park with South Middleton Township Park in Boiling Springs. The stone-surfaced trail is suitable for hiking and biking through fields and along wetlands. This makes it different from the self-guided village tour: the focus here is on outdoor activity and connecting two parks.
A Place Connected to the Appalachian Trail
Boiling Springs is designated an Appalachian Trail Community. The community provides services for hikers and promotes the trail as a tourism resource. This designation also connects the trail with the community itself: it links hiking with the role the Appalachian Trail plays in the area's tourism profile.
You can choose what to focus on by comparing the options that interest you. The 22-stop tour puts the village at its center, the Iron Furnace explores the history of iron production, and the Fielding Belt Trail combines hiking or biking with fields and wetlands. At Children's Lake, the story of its creation intersects with the route of a section of the Appalachian Trail. These different themes offer ways to explore Boiling Springs according to your interests, without prescribing a single route.
Discover more destinations: Mechanicsburg, Shippensburg, Camp Hill, Wormleysburg, New Cumberland, Carlisle, Enola
Go to the main travel guide: Cumberland.
