Gephart, undaunted by the Valentine Iron fiasco, returned to the ironmaking scene in May 1899. Backed by "eastern capitalists", the Bellefonte Furnace Company was organized to put the Bellefonte Furnace at Coleville back into operation, supplied by iron mines at Mattern, Red Bank, and the former Carnegie ore pits at Scotia. The furnace lay a short distance to the west of Bellefonte, and was served by the Bellefonte Central Railroad. However, Gephart soon built an extension of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, which crossed Spring Creek on a trestle to reach the furnace and an interchange with the BFC, and began supplying the furnace with limestone from a quarry at Salona.