Stirling Ironworks in Ruin
The dense woods which compose the
shorelines of Stirling Lake in rural New York are home to more than
just picturesque forestry and wildlife. Herein can be found numerous
overgrown ruins, and though present day shows them as mere
dilapidated collections of moss-covered stones, what once stood here
shaped the landscape of not just the state of New York, but the
nation as a whole. These scattered bits of debris are all that hint
to the long passed existence of the Stirling Ironworks, which
operated from 1761 until 1842. When first opened, these ironworks
ushered in an era of iron and steel manufacturing for the United
States, having been one of the first plants in all the country.
Equally important however, it was from these very furnaces which
George Washington commissioned the fabrication of the Hudson River
Chain – a massive chain which spanned the Hudson river from West
Point to Constitution Island, blocking the British fleet from being
able to access the waterway for the duration of the American
Revolutionary War.
The woods have long since stretched
themselves back across the land which the ironworks and associated
mines had ravaged ages ago. All is once again green here, but hidden
throughout the foliage are constant reminders, proclaiming that
things were not always so quiet and serene. Long abandoned mines,
slowly filling with water, stretch themselves out into the blackness
of the earth. Crumbling stonework walls emerge from, and return to
nowhere. Small foundations pit the forest, footprints to homes last
used over a century ago. The past wafts through these woods riding on
cool lake winds.
Thomas Edison inspecting a kiln.
Looking skyward from within a decaying kiln.
The furnace, as it were in 1950.
The same furnace today.
