Saugus Iron Works - Saugus MA - Working Water Wheels on Waymarking.com

Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a National Historic Site located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Downtown Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts. It is the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America, founded by John Winthrop the Younger and in operation between 1646 – 1668. It includes the reconstructed blast furnace, forge, rolling mill, shear, slitter and a quarter-ton drop hammer.

The facility is powered by seven large waterwheels, some of which are rigged to work in tandem with huge wooden gears connecting them. It has a wharf to load the iron onto ocean-going vessels, as well as a large, restored 17th-century house.

Sixteen years after the Puritans settled Boston, they built this impressive, large manufacturing complex. At the time there were only a dozen such high-tech plants in all of Europe. Skilled metallurgists John Turner and John Vinton were brought in to manage the fineries. Unskilled laborers cut wood for making charcoal, and quarrying the bog ore and flux.

Current evidence of the "Ironmaster's house" has determined that it was built by a man named Appleton in circa 1681 and that this was long after the iron works had ceased operation. This house, therefore, was not the Iron Master's house as originally portrayed.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/26/2022 Don.Morfe visited it 07/22/2013 buffalohiker visited it

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