How Lodge Became the Last Skillet Maker in America

Knights Templar on August 23, 2026 244 views

Subscribe to stay updated and support us 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@HeirloomAmerica?sub_confirmation=1

America once had dozens of great cast iron foundries. Griswold in Erie. Wagner in Sidney. Names that made skillets so fine collectors now pay thousands for them. One by one, they were sold, cheapened, and shut down — until nearly all of them were gone.

But in a small Tennessee town, one foundry never stopped pouring iron.

This is the story of Lodge: how a family foundry founded in 1896 survived the fire that burned it down, the Depression, the war, and the wave of cheap nonstick pans that killed every one of its rivals — to become the last major cast iron skillet maker left in America. It didn't survive by being the fanciest. It survived by staying humble, staying home, and refusing to quit.

The great American cast iron makers are mostly gone. This is the one that's still standing — and still making the skillet in your kitchen today.