Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, Colonial iron manufacturing site in Essex County, United States.
Saugus Iron Works is a site with reconstructed blast furnaces, forges, rolling mills, and waterwheels spread across about twelve acres along the Saugus River. Water power drove the machinery and made it possible to turn raw iron into finished products.
The facility was founded in the 1640s and was the first integrated iron production plant in North America. It stopped operating about twenty years later when profitability declined.
The site shows how skilled workers from England brought iron-making knowledge to Massachusetts and shaped early American industry. This knowledge helped many colonies build their own manufacturing operations.
The grounds are easy to walk through, with marked paths between the different buildings. It helps to allow time to explore each workshop area thoroughly.
Scottish prisoners of war from the Battle of Dunbar worked here as contract laborers and learned skilled trades that helped them later settle in the community. These workers became part of the local population.
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