About This Episode
What is this episode about?
The episode "Sins Of The Earth: Part Two - The Ironmasters" from The Devil Within returns to the eighteenth-century New Jersey Highlands, where colonial industrialists transformed forests and mountains into a sprawling network of mines, furnaces, forges, and settlements. This second installment of Sins Of The Earth centers on Peter Hasenclever, a German-born industrialist backed by the American Iron Company, whose ambitions helped build an industrial empire capable of supplying iron to the growing British colonies.
The episode details the enormous cost of that ambition: entire forests harvested for charcoal, rivers dammed to power bellows, roads carved through mountains, and generations of workers enduring brutal conditions to keep furnaces burning, particularly at Long Pond. It considers what remained once the industry collapsed — smoke, ash, slag, and physical remnants scattered throughout the Highlands — and raises open questions about whether the environmental consequences of colonial ironmaking persisted long after the furnaces went cold, and whether any credible link exists to darker, more recent chapters of Jefferson Township's history. These questions, explored further under The Ironmasters, remain unresolved.
Topics covered include the rise of colonial iron production and Britain's Iron Act of 1750, the development of Long Pond under Hasenclever and the American Iron Company, the demand for timber, charcoal, waterpower, and labor, daily life in the ironworking communities, and the lingering environmental legacy of the industry.
Hosts and release
Branden Morgan hosts The Devil Within, a filmic true crime and supernatural podcast exploring legends, disappearances, curses, and unsolved mysteries. The episode runs 25 minutes and was released on November 11, 2026, available on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
