LocationsMassachusetts
Saugus, Massachusetts
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site
A whole seventeenth-century ironworks rebuilt on the river — waterwheels, a blast furnace, a forge, and bellows eighteen feet long that blew the air into it.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
Nearly four hundred years ago people came to this river and built machines to melt rock into iron. Seven waterwheels turned here, and one of them worked a pair of leather bellows eighteen feet long, blowing air into a furnace to keep it hot enough. All of it fell down and got buried, and stayed buried, until diggers found it again and put it back up.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about an hour and a half at the park.
- Parking
- The site is at 244 Central Street. Free.
- Underfoot
- Twelve acres with a half-mile nature trail. The grounds and trail are open around the clock; the museum, the industrial buildings and the waterwheel demonstrations run Wednesday to Sunday in season.
- Bathrooms
- Bathrooms, but only in season.
- Food
- There is a picnic area on the site.
21 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
Every game includes this one
Find A Waterwheel
Find a waterwheel. Stand where you can see the whole thing turn.
A few of the others
There Were Seven
Seven waterwheels once turned here. Count how many you can find today.
Leather Lungs
The bellows that blew air into this furnace were eighteen feet long. Work out why a fire needs somebody blowing on it.
Where Rock Turned Into Iron
Find the furnace. People melted rock in there until iron ran out of the bottom.
White Chimneys
Find the big wooden buildings with the white chimneys, and count the chimneys.
The River Does The Work
Work out how a river can make a machine turn when nobody is pushing it.
Which Way Is It Going
Watch the water and everybody point which way the river is going. No arguing until everyone has pointed.
The rest are a surprise — that's the whole point.
Play this at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.