When you speak of Saugus, well, it is not a tourist hot spot of Massachusetts (really, how many of you can place it on a map?). However, the old iron works site is there and we went. I had never been to it and had no idea where it was in Saugus. (It is slightly east of route 1, in a neighborhood). Upon entering the visitor center the ranger pulled out a binder and allowed little man and baby bro to pick out 3 sheets to complete around the park. We then went to the museum to look at artifacts and, "ooh mommy, look, a movie", within 10 seconds of entering said museum. So we watched a brief history of the ironworks and I wondered if my boys understood that the movie is a recreation of the 1630s. I digress. After the movie, we walked to the buildings (built to look like what the buildings would have looked like and using archeological evidence for the sites). By the way, this site is in the middle of a neighborhood. It was kinda interesting to walk down a path to antique buildings and see through the chain link fence someone's grill. There are 4 main buildings on the site and if the ranger is around they will start up the water wheels to run the bellows or the 500 lb hammer (another place that would have been useful to have earplugs). We learned the difference between iron ore and cast iron. We also found out about sluicing and sludge piles. It was an interesting visit. I wonder if there are more activities (ie fires going and blacksmiths working) during peak visiting times. We were the only visitors for most of our time there. Little man did ask to go back, bring daddy, and not do the Jr. Ranger Program.
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