Tour of Saugus Iron Works highlights rich history of area

On Sept. 26, 25 people took the behind-the-scenes tour of the Saugus Iron Works, conducted by National Park Ranger Jonathan Parker, chief of Interpretation, Education and Partnerships of the Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites, as part of Saugus’ 200th anniversary celebration of the incorporation of Saugus in 1815.

I was amazed at the history of the Saugus Iron Works as related by Ranger Parker, viewed in a film and read in a National Park Foundation brochure. I went back another day and also saw the interesting archaeological artifacts in the Iron Works Museum. The Saugus Iron Works is truly a national historic treasure. The information I am about to write is but a brief window into history and are the words and facts of people in the past who actually took part in the concept of its beginning and were responsible for its construction and workings. The subsequent reconstruction project of the Saugus Iron Works was completed in the 1950s, and the site opened to the public in 1954.

The Saugus Iron Works began operation in 1646. John Winthrop, who served as governor for 12 of the Massachusetts Bay colony’s first 20 years of existence as the first, sixth, ninth and 12th governor, initiated this project — one reason being the Puritans needed a way to make a living — and he said, “We must have a supply of iron.”

They first tried to build an iron works in Braintree, but it was poorly located. Gov. Winthrop hired Richard Leader, an engineer and designer, who found everything he needed for an iron works facility on the banks of the Saugus River.

During the tour, we actually stood on a wooden bridge on top of the “blast furnace” and viewed the “charger” that fed the furnace below with the three things that were needed to begin the process of making iron products — bog iron, gabbro rock and charcoal. Leader found them all at this site. There was also an abundance of forests that were felled by woodcutters, and the wood was burned to make charcoal. It took 250 bushels of charcoal to make one ton of iron. Leader built a huge water wheel which turned an axle to drive the “bellows” that pushed air into the blast furnace to keep the fires hot enough to melt down the iron. By the mid-l600s, water wheels were the most efficient power sources and were a common part of the industrial landscape.

Leader dammed the river. The Saugus tidal river allowed boats to enter and depart twice a day. The boats came from Lynn Harbor right up to the dock of the Iron Works. The major route for shipping raw materials to the Saugus Iron Works was The Saugus River. Boats often went to Nahant, Boston, Braintree, Weymouth and Salem from the Iron Works waterfront.

Iron was used everyday by the colonists and aided them in building their farm, homes and boats, and in making different tools, including nails, anvils, hammers, picks and shovels, silverware and kitchenware.

Today, we take for granted items made from iron because of modern machinery, but just imagine years ago, before the industrial revolution, when making iron was a difficult and dangerous undertaking. Men were working with molten metal of temperatures in the blast furnace up to 3,000 degrees. The men had to wear special gloves and special clothes to protect themselves from flying hot ashes — and had no eyewear protection.

The first pour allowed the men to skim off the “slag,” and the second pour was diverted with hoes into trenches in the sand to form the sow bars — also called “pig iron” — that came out of the blast furnace. The men picked up the pig iron with long-handled tongs, which after heating several times in the finery were converted into a loop. A sledge hammer knocked off any remaining slag on the loop, which was then put under the 500-pound hammerhead for shaping into a rough square called a bloom.

The bloom was cut in half, and the half-bloom was again heated and beaten out into the “anchony shape. The “anchony” was heated in the chafery and placed under the hammer to have its end knobs beaten out. The result was wrought iron merchant bars, which were ready for sale, and also were the basic stock for the rolling and slitting mill, which produced bundles of rods to make nails and rolled pieces to make iron tires for wagon wheels, plus other products.

Items like pots, weights, firebacks and anvils, could also be made by “pouring the hot molten iron directly from the blast furnace into clay molds set under the sand.”

By 1650, Leader’s iron works rivaled any iron works in England. Despite being a manufacturing success, Leader left the iron works to pursue other endeavors. Problems arose at the Iron Works under Leader’s successors — such as mounting lawsuits and litigations because of financial problems. The Iron works stopped running in 1670.

Archaeologist Roland Wells Robbins excavated the Iron Works between 1948 and 1953. These excavations were the basis of the reconstruction of the Iron Works in the 1950s. Robbins and his team unearthed the remains of the blast furnace and the 500-pound hammerhead. A large section of a water wheel was found 17 feet under Central Street covered with hundreds of years of fill — near the location of the present Iron Works parking lot, and accounts for why there is such a big curve in the road where Central Street used to be a straight road. The Iron Works Museum has these items and many other artifacts.

The Saugus Iron Works was transferred to the National Park Service in 1968 and was designated a National Historic Site.

No matter how many times the story of the Saugus Iron Works is told, the ultimate and awesome conclusion is that an important part of the history of our country — the United States of America — is located in our Town of Saugus.