By late winter, LC&NC was seeking suitable real estate, with water power and access to iron ores. Suitable acres were available a few miles below the Lehigh Gap in Northampton County. The company put its first furnace into blast in 1840, and quickly gained a reputation for efficiency and ironmaking prowess among the many furnaces that now sprang up in the Lehigh Valley. Over the next several decades, Crane Iron developed an extensive portfolio of assets, buying mines in the Lehigh Valley and in northern New Jersey, and taking over many of the smaller iron furnaces in the region. Crane Iron also financed the building of railroads in the area to haul limestone and iron ore to its furnaces.