Saugus, Massachusetts
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site
Photo: Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A 17th-century ironworks rebuilt on the Saugus River, with working waterwheels, a blast furnace, a forge, a half-mile nature trail and a picnic area.
Written for ages 3–12.
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 a works for making iron. They melted bog ore in a blast furnace, and the river turned waterwheels that worked the bellows and the hammers. After about twenty-five years the works shut down, and slowly the place was hidden under bushes and dirt. In the 1940s, diggers found what was left, and the buildings and waterwheels you see now were rebuilt to show how it all worked.
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 in Saugus, with parking by the visitor center and a lower lot near the river. No entrance fee.
- 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.
- Stroller
- A stroller works on some of it.
- 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.
5 things to work out, 4 things to spot and 3 things to climb, cross or balance on.
Every game includes this one
Find A Waterwheel
Find a waterwheel and stand where you can see the whole thing. Is it turning today?
A few of the others
There Were Seven
This ironworks runs on waterwheels. Count how many you can find.
Leather Lungs
Big bellows blew air into this furnace, worked by a waterwheel. 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 forge, where iron was hammered into bars a blacksmith could use. Count its 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.
Also around Saugus
Breakheart Reservation
Saugus
Two lakes in a big forest, supervised summer swimming at Pearce Lake, and rocky hilltops to climb for views of Boston and New Hampshire.
Rumney Marsh Reservation
Saugus
A 600-acre tidal salt marsh in the Saugus and Pines River inlet, flat and open for bird watching, and a state Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
Play this at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.