Have you had a fun adventure with your family or a relaxing time? We would love to hear about it. Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting our family activities in hopes to inspire all of us to have more quality family time. Please share below!
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| Pop, Hazel, and Mimi waiting for tour to start |
This week we had my parents visit for a long weekend. We did some fun things with them, but I think the most interesting was visiting the Iron Works. It is a National Historic Site. You may remember in September I blogged about going to an iron pour there. This time we went for the Industrial Site Tour. A group of tiger scouts went as well. They kind of took over the tour and Hazel did not have the patience for the entire tour, so we left a bit early. It was really interesting though.
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| Iron Works--View from above Blast Furnace |
So the Saugus Iron Works is first place in America to use this method to make iron. It was started by Governor Winthrop who wanted Massachusetts Colony to be independent of England. Originally they tried to start one in Braintree, but that was a failure due to poor choices. Then they brought over an engineer named Leder to build it. He choose this site and got it working. He also insisted on bringing in people from Europe to run it which of course the Puritans did not like since they were not as strict about their lifestyle.
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| Blast Furnace |
The most interesting thing is that this site is celebrated because it went bankrupt. As a result all the trained workers spread throughout the company starting new iron works and developing the iron and eventually steel industry in America. Going on the tour, they actually do have some of the wheels turn and do some of the actions of the iron works. All of this site is rebuilt. Since it went bankrupt, the original went into disrepair. They found the foundations and some parts and rebuilt it where the buildings actually were.
We also went into the Rolling and Slitting Mill. Here again they spun the wheel for us, but even more interesting was that they used the large hammer and anvil. We had to cover our ears.
After this Hazel got antsy, so we left the tour. We missed going into the Forge. We however got to enjoy looking at the map which is where the tour started but the tiger scouts were crowded around so we could not get close.
Hazel enjoyed feeling it. The Park Ranger had poured water in it to show us how it would have run back in the 1600's.
Overall it was a fun visit! We know we will go back again and see the rest of the tour. Check out the museum some more and go on the tour of the house.
I must say fall was a beautiful time to visit there though!
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| Saugus River |
Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.
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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!
How beautiful it is there. Jaime@FSPDT
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