Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site - Places (U.S. National Park Service)

Stone and wood ruins of the 1640s blast furnace and bellows frame.

NPS Photo by Roland W. Robbins

Stone foundations of the blast furnace appear in this October 1949 photo. The wooden frame that supported the large wood and leather bellows is visible in the foreground.

Blast Furnace
Using charcoal as its fuel, the Saugus blast furnace roared to life in 1646 and smelted locally-mined bog ore and gabbro into cast iron "pig" bars. Gray iron was also poured into molds to make pots, kettles, skillets, firebacks and salt-pans.

Archeologists inpect nine-foot crossed timbers that formed a foundation for one of two water powered hammers.

NPS photo by Roland W. Robbins

Evidence of two large hammers was found buried beneath Bridge Street, Saugus.

Forge
Carbon was removed from pig bars in the forge. A five hundred pound hammer was used to forge a hot ball of iron into wrought iron "merchant bars". These bars were sold to merchants and blacksmiths for manufacture into finished products.

Flat bar of iron with slit end was found during the archeological work.

NPS photo by Richard Merrill

This discarded iron bar made it part way through slitting machinery where it jammed. It illustrates the before and after of the slitting process.

Rolling and Slitting Mill
Iron bars were reheated and flattened through rollers. Blacksmiths made cart and wagon tires, axes, hinges, and saw blades from the flat bar. Flat bar could be further processed through slitters to produce thin strips of metal for making nails or horse shoes.

Wooden sills are uncovered from centuries of fill along the Saugus River and show the extent of the seventeenth century dock area.

NPS photo by Richard Merrill

Lower sills of the retaining wall that separated the iron works from the Saugus River. Photo taken September 8, 1953.

Dock Area
Shallow draft boats made their way up and down the tidal Saugus River transporting raw materials in and finished products out. Goods loaded at the Saugus dock were brought to Boston where they were loaded onto ships destined for other parts of Massachusetts, London, and even Barbados.

A stone forge, large wood timbers, and two wooden waterwheels are uncovered in March of 1952.

NPS photo by Roland W. Robbins

Remains of Jenckes' "engines of mills that go by water for speedy dispatch of much work with few mens labor."

Joseph Jenckes Shop
Edge tools such as axes, scythes and saw blades were manufactured next to the slag pile, on the blast furnace tailrace. In 1646 Joseph Jenckes obtained a patent from the Massachusetts General Court for his water-powered machinery.