The history of iron runs deep in the Lehigh Valley. You’ll find towns called Ironton and Orefield, businesses called Iron Lakes Country Club and Iron Mountain, as well as the minor league baseball team, the IronPigs. This is because the area was rich in the raw materials needed to produce iron, and in the mid-1800s, became the center of a booming iron industry.
The Valley’s largest producer, Bethlehem Iron, converted its operation to steel production at the end of the 1800s. Steel, an alloy of iron, became an essential building block of the America we know today. Steel from the Lehigh Valley can be found everywhere from the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building to the naval vessels and armaments that got us through two world wars. Foreign competition would force Bethlehem Steel to close its doors in the 1990s, ending the era of iron and steel production in the area.
Now iron is back in the Valley in a new way: cast iron skillets. Founded by Lafayette graduate Peter Huntley in 2015, Stargazer Cast Iron operates out of Allentown, just a few miles west of the original Bethlehem Iron plant. During Huntley’s time as a kitchenware product designer, he found a lack of quality in modern goods manufactured overseas, and set out to build a product and a company that could be held to a higher standard.
In the six years it has been in business, Stargazer has produced tens of thousands of skillets, been featured in publications such as Popular Mechanics, Good Housekeeping, and gained a strong following on social media. With reviews online calling out praise for features such as the skillet’s stay-cool handle and smooth finish, it’s clear that Stargazer’s reputation reaches well beyond the Valley.
Two skillet sizes are currently offered on Stargazer’s website: 10.5-inch and 12-inch. But Stargazer has a few more irons in the fire. “Keep an eye out. In the next six to twelve months, we’re going to be rolling out three or four new products,” Huntley teased on the company’s Instagram.
