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Fifth Annual Day at the Foundry Offers Tours of Renowned Industrial Site
Tours to explore recently excavated casting house
Scenic Hudson and archaeologists from Michigan Technological University will host their fifth annual Day at the Foundry on Saturday, July 14, from 10am to 4pm (rain or shine). Guided tours of Scenic Hudson's West Point Foundry Preserve will showcase recent excavations of the casting house, which is featured in the famous painting The Gun Foundry by John Ferguson Weir. A highlight of the collection of the nearby Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry School Museum, the large canvas recently was part of an exhibition that traveled to China.
In addition to tours, visitors can view artifacts unearthed by the archaeologists and watch local blacksmith Dean Anderson demonstrate iron-working techniques. The event is free and open to the public.
A technological powerhouse, the West Point Foundry (1818- 1912) was established following the War of 1812 to provide cannon, shot and shells for the federal government. It eventually grew to employ hundreds of workers manufacturing America's first steam engines, water wheels, pipes for New York City's water system, ironclad sailing ships, and stoves and ovens. Its most famous product was the Parrott gun, a rifled cannon credited with turning the tide of the Civil War. The foundry was a virtual village, with homes, shops, schools and churches for the workers and their families.
Scenic Hudson is committed to making the foundry site a world-class industrial heritage destination. For the last six years it has sponsored research by students in Michigan Tech's industrial archaeology program to better understand how to tell the history of the 87-acre preserve.
During the Day at the Foundry, Michigan Tech experts will lead tours of the site, including remains of the boring mill, blast furnace and machine shop. Special emphasis will be given to the newly excavated casting house, where workers once used a giant ladle to transfer molten iron from a furnace into cannon molds. So far the archaeologists have uncovered one of the casting pits depicted in Weir's The Gun Foundry.
A boyhood resident of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (where his father taught painting), Mr. Weir was a frequent guest at the foundry across the river. Painted between 1864 and 1866, The Gun Foundry was his most famous work. It has been an important resource for Michigan Tech archaeologists, helping them decipher the objects and architecture revealed during their excavations. The canvas was featured recently in the exhibition Art in America: Three Hundred Years of Innovation - the first survey of American art in the People's Republic of China. A copy of the painting will be on display during A Day at the Foundry.
Directions to West Point Foundry Preserve: From the intersection of Route 9D and Main Street (Route 301) in Cold Spring, take the third left onto Rock Street. Turn right onto Kemble Avenue and follow signs. The site is a short walk from the Cold Spring train station (follow signs from the northbound platform).
Scenic Hudson works to protect and restore the Hudson River and its majestic landscape as an irreplaceable national treasure and a vital resource for residents and visitors. A crusader for the valley since 1963, they are credited with saving fabled Storm King Mountain from a destructive industrial project and launching the modern grass-roots environmental movement. Today they are the largest environmental group focused on the Hudson River Valley. They combine land acquisition, support for agriculture, citizen-based advocacy and planning tools to create environmentally healthy communities, open up riverfronts to the public and preserve the valley's inspiring beauty and natural resources. www.scenichudson.org.
Michigan Technological University's industrial archaeologists research the history of the relationship between people and technology at the roots of the modern world. Michigan Tech offers a graduate degree in industrial archaeology, a unique program in the United States. www.Westpointfoundry.org.
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