Housatonic Heritage

FOBF_silver Administrative, Iron History, Resources July 29, 2014August 3, 2014Housatonic Heritage, organizations, resources

Housatonic Heritage

Beckley Furnace has a close relationship with Housatonic Heritage, the umbrella organization that represents the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area.

We’re proud to publish the Iron Heritage Trail map and brochure! It’s free, available at Beckley Furnace, at any area Historical Society, at most libraries, and at many hotels, inns, and restaurants in our area. We are also proud that Beckley Furnace is the centerpiece of this set of tours around our area.

The Iron Heritage Trail makes it easy to see important elements of our industrial and social history via nine separate suggested tours. Each tour is a reasonable objective for a morning or afternoon, and each also provides opportunities for more study.

Here are the tours suggested in the brochure:

Tour I: Beckley Furnace (that’s us!!). No driving in this tour; we believe there’s enough at Beckley to keep nearly anyone interested and involved for a couple of hours.

Tour II: Beckley Furnace to Norfolk and Colebrook, CT

Tour III: Beckley Furnace to North Canaan, Falls Village, and Amesville, CT.

Tour IV: Salisbury, Mount Riga, and Lakeville

Tour V: Lime Rock to Sharon

Tour VI: Sharon, Cornwall, Kent, and Roxbury, CT

Tour VII: Amenia, NY to Clove Valley Ironworks, Beekman, NY

Tour VIII: Millerton, NY; Copake, NY; Chatham, NY

Tour IX: North Canaan, CT to Lanesborough, MA

The brochure also includes convenient articles about the discovery of the so-called Salisbury Ore, the blast furnaces of the Salisbury Iron District, and the natural local resources that made the Upper Housatonic valley area a natural one for the production of iron.

So you can spot it among all the other brochures vying for your attention, here’s what it looks like:

Iron around the World

FOBF_silver Iron History July 27, 2014July 31, 2014beckley, Beckley furnace, iron, iron industry, John Adam Beckley, worldwide iron

You and other people might think that the iron industry was only in the United States. But, it had to of come from somewhere right?

Where else was the iron industry?

-An iron blade was found in an Egyptian pyramid.

-By 5 B.C. there were small blast furnaces in China

-In Germany blast furnaces date to the 14th century

-In Spain forges date to the 8th century

-The Cranberry Bogs in Massachusetts was where they dug up bog Iron.

-The iron furnace in Kent, CT gave its’ name to the Kent Furnace in Kent, Ct.

-Sheffeild, England was where they invented crucible steel.

See? The iron industry most likely came here from Europe and Asia which was where it started.

This is America, not Europe!

The most likely reason as to why the iron industry started here was that the people that came to America from Europe brought with them ideas. One of these ideas probably was to start iron furnaces in the original colonies. If you’ve seen our ABOUT page, you’ll remember that John Adam Beckley originally set up the many Beckley Furnaces. Other people may have been inspired by him, or had already had other furnaces/forges which is how there were so many then and how there are still some around today.