The Saugus Ironworks

June 21, 2024

Right off Route 1 in Saugus is a national historic site called the Saugus Ironworks.

The first iron smelt in all the western hemisphere happened in Saugus, Massachusetts. The colonists saw that they needed an independent source of steel, so they set about constructing their own mill, complete with a massive stone furnace to smelt iron ore into workable metal.

They damned the nearby Saugus river and routed sluices of water to power water wheels.

The furnace was dug into the side of a hill. Workers (Scottish prisoners of war) hauled carts of ore, charcoal, and flux up to the top and dropped the ingredients down this chimney.

A diorama cross section of an active forge. Molten iron came out a hatch at the bottom and flowed into crude molds dug into the sand. The iron,

Two massive bellows heated the furnace to thousands of degrees by pumping oxygen into the belly of the furnace. And they were driven by a water wheel!

Iron smelting is an amazing craft. While the colonists built a huge, mechanically driven operation with a blast furnace, iron can be created with less. Villages in West Africa have maintained the knowledge of the ancient techniques. In this documentary, they construct a clay bloomery and heat a chunk of iron to form an iron hoe.

I’m floored by this place. I intend to return soon.