As I opened the front windows of the coach this morning we found a “Turkey Farm” sitting in front of us. Wild turkeys that is… Two groups totaling 13. I stepped out of the coach to take a picture and it didn’t seem to bother them at all, I guess they aren’t as “Wild” as I thought. The Elks Club sits on 8 acres and borders up against a 50 acre state park so I guess the turkeys have a lot of human contact and feel safe as long as they aren’t carrying a shot gun. Breakfast finished we head out for another adventure. Well “adventure” might be a little strong but we did take a morning to visit the Saugus Iron Works, which is being taken care of by the National Park Service.
The Saugus Iron Works was built 16 years after the Puritans settled in Boston. They built this impressive, large manufacturing complex at the time when there were only a dozen or so in Europe. This facility was powered by 7 large waterwheels, some of which were rigged to work in tandem with huge wooden gears connecting them.
A wharf was built on the Saugus River after the river was diverted and made larger to handle the requirements of the “Works”.
The iron was to be loaded onto ocean-going vessels and shipped up and down the eastern coast and all the way to England. The original manufacturing site served as a training ground for skilled iron workers for what would become America’s iron and steel industry. The blast furnace, forge,
rolling and slitting mill, warehouse, and dock area were all reconstructed on original sites between 1948 and 1953 and that’s what we experienced during our visit. Attached to the visitors center sits the “Iron Works House”.
This 1680’s mansion house, which was constructed about 10 years after the iron works CEASED production, is still standing on its original location.
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