August 2, 2008

August 2, 2008

Northeast of Boston is the Saugus Ironworks National Historic Site. On this site in 1620 was the first iron production in North America. Intended to make the Puritans self-sufficient from England they built a complete mill with blast furnace, stamping mill and rod mill. An amazing operation for this area in that time period. Unfortunately it was too much, too soon for the frontier. It went bankrupt after twenty years. We learn a little about iron making in the museum and then take a tour of the restored site. Pretty impressive and not terribly different from modern mills of today.

Our next stop is the Lowell National Historic Site. Lowell, MA was the site of the nation’s first large-scale textile factory. After pilfering the secrets of automated weaving from England, wealthy Boston investors built a water-powered factory here in the 1820’s. It was an instant success and many more mills were built, thriving on cheap cotton grown in the South. But all good things come to an end. In the early twentieth century, the mills could not compete with inexpensive southern labor and all the factories were shuttered killing the city. Not knowing what to do with the area they had the National Park Service turn it into a museum. A costumed ranger gives us a brief walking tour, past the water canals that supplied the power wheels, to the Boote Factory, now a textile museum. There they have a large room full of weaving machines in action. They are noisy! What lousy conditions for these first assembly line workers toiling thirteen hours a day, six days a week for peanuts. We have it so much better today.