President’s Letter–2013 in Review

 

Editor’s Note:  In her review of 2013, Board President Milbrey “Mibs” Zelley reports to you on our progress during the past year and our plans for this coming year.  We are grateful for her guidance and enthusiasm which have helped us achieve so much, especially this past year.

Dear Friends,

When I sat down to write the 2013 Year in Review for Friends of Taconic State Park, I was astounded to realize what a full and busy year it had been for us. Thanks to you, our contributing members, we were able to offer at least one event every month (sometimes two) and we completed two major preservation projects at the historic Copake Iron Works. We completed the urgent task of stabilizing the four exterior arches and the inner kiln of the centerpiece blast furnace as well as the re-pointing of the brickwork on the Iron Works machine shop. We opened a new trail, participated in several community events, and increased our membership a hundred-fold!

We started the new year on the right (and left) foot with our second annual First Day Hike.   Chris Rickard, our new Taconic State Park manager, led 25 hikers on a brisk walk (it was cold!) to Bash Bish Falls, and afterward everyone gathered around a roaring bonfire for hot chocolate and snacks.

February's offering was our annual President’s Day “Snow or No” hike to Sunset Rock where several of us enjoyed the special tranquility of the winter woods with their open vistas. Join us this year on February 16^th for a “Snow or No” hike on the new section of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.

In March, we hosted our third annual “Welcome Spring” benefit event, organized by “Friend-Extraordinaire” Margaret Roach, and featuring Ken Greene of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. A capacity crowd turned out at the Copake Grange to hear Ken’s fascinating talk on heirloom gardening and to shop at our gardeners’ market featuring local organic seed purveyors.

We are deeply grateful for Margaret’s generosity of time, treasure and talent, not just in organizing this event, but in her beneficence throughout the year. Mark your calendars now for our fourth Welcome Spring event on Saturday, March 22^nd – details to follow.

April saw the realization of a long-dreamed of trail opening. Our “get it done gang” of Edgar Masters, Chris Rickard (not pictured), Bob Callahan, Jim Conklin, Tom Flaherty and Steve Near built a trail connecting the Copake Iron Works to the Bash Bish Falls.

It is a magnificent new pathway running above the southern bank of the Bash Bish Brook, past the facsimile of a charcoal hearth and the “Day Pond.” We have dubbed this new trail the Iron Works to Bash Bish Connector and it has succeeded in introducing the Copake Iron Works to many new visitors.

Also in April, our Board vice president Brian Boom hosted a lecture at the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society. Brian, a scholar in residence at the New York Botanical Garden, gave a fascinating talk on environmental challenges in Cuba where he travels frequently on scientific expeditions. His deep knowledge of the flora and fauna of Cuba brought a new dimension to our understanding of global environmental issues.

May was a busy month. About 50 park lovers participated in the first “I Love My Park Day,” a state-wide event sponsored by Parks and Trails New York. With an abundance of enthusiastic volunteers, we blazed our new trail, weed-whacked a path down to Bash Bish Brook for summertime use in stream ecology programs, cleaned up the camp grounds, and refurbished the garden around the “Business Office” at the Copake Iron Works. We were honored to welcome New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett who kicked off the festivities.

The following weekend, our good friend Margaret Roach brought us Lee Reich, “the PhD of Fruit” who spoke on Organic Backyard Fruit Growing, and led a hands-on workshops on fruit grafting. Margaret also opened her Copake Falls garden to the public that day, bringing people from far and wide, eager to see her incredible garden. The considerable proceeds of the day’s events greatly benefited our Furnace Stabilization Fund. Lee returns on May 10^th for a talk on Weed Less Gardening.

In June, world-renowned botanist Robert Naczi of the New York Botanical Garden, led a fascinating walk to the top of Sunset Rock Road. We discovered a multitude of different ferns and he pointed out quite a few different species of mountain blueberry bushes. Using botanical lenses, we were able to see the microscopic beauty of so many flowers, leaves, and plants.

We are grateful to Dr. Naczi for giving us the benefit of his wisdom, and to board member Brian Boom (pictured above) for arranging this fascinating visit from his NYBG colleague.

Also in June, Friends of Taconic State Park was vicariously honored when Parks & Trails New York awarded the Volunteer Service Award to Edgar Masters for his work to preserve the Copake Iron Works.  Pictured here is Edgar receiving the award from Laura DiBetta, our good friend at Parks & Trails New York.

The arrival of the summer camping season in mid-June brought many new visitors to the park. Board member Jim Mackin organized three feature film nights at the Copake Iron Works complete with his unique collection of fun and funny short films on Park-related topics. And what film would you choose to kickoff Movie Night at the Iron Works?  “Iron Man” of course!  Kids waved glo-sticks and ate popcorn while the mosquitoes kept their distance!

From July through November, we hosted “The Black Art -- Charcoaling on Mount Washington,” produced by the Mount Washington (MA) History Project. Mounted in the Copake Ironworks machine shop, the fascinating exhibit attracted a steady flow of visitors all summer and well into the fall.

 

The exhibit was formally opened at our fifth Annual Meeting and Potluck Supper when Cory Hines and Mary King Austin, curators of the exhibit, spoke to a standing room only crowd about the genesis and production of the exhibit. Also at the Annual Meeting we proclaimed the date to be Victor Rolando Day in honor of the man who has served as de facto Guardian of the Iron Works since the 1950s.

In August, on Copake Falls Day, our loyal supporter Margaret Roach hosted a sold-out benefit lecture by the Fabulous Beekman Boys. Their enthralling talk was a heartfelt and heartwarming memoir of the couple’s successful efforts to help revive a moribund farming community.

 Most exciting of all the summer's events, though, was the preservation work being done at the Iron Works. After having completed the protective cover for the historic blast furnace, we set about the important task of stabilizing the structure’s four exterior arches and its interior kiln. This painstaking work required the special expertise of Ganem Masonry, specialists in historic masonry preservation. Week by week, we watched in amazement as Ziggy and his team from Ganem stabilized each of the four arches and the interior kiln. Now, visitors to the site really get a sense of the immensity of the structure, and can more readily visualize what it looked like in it hey-day in the 19^th century.

Meanwhile, just across the way from the furnace, we pondered what to do about the crumbling brickwork of the foundation and facades of the Iron Works machine shop. Our prayers were answered when we learned that an anonymous benefactor had funded the cost of engaging Ganem Masonry to carry out that stabilization work as well.

Today, the two central structures of the Copake Iron Works stand ready to tell their story of this important 19^th century industrial site.

Although the pace of life in Copake Falls slows down a bit with the return of autumn, our schedule did not! In September, we offered a special hike as part of the 2^nd Annual Hudson Valley Ramble. Founding Board president and veteran hiker Jane Peck led a group on this beautiful fall ramble through a part of our landscape rarely enjoyed by the public.

In October, Board member Jim Mackin hosted “Art in the Park,” a lively talk about the many artists, both past and present, who have created enduring images of our park. Jim’s witty and wise slideshow highlighting famous Taconic artists gave us a new appreciation of the beauty of our Park, seen through the eyes of the artists. Mark your calendar now for Jim’s June 21^st talk on the history of the Copake Iron Works – details to follow.

 

Board members Robin Bruce and Deb Cohen—our hostesses with the mostesses -- organized Furnace Fest in November which, despite terrible weather, drew a large crowd to witness the “unveiling” of the stabilized furnace arches. We were honored at that event by a surprise visit from Wint Aldrich, the former New York State Deputy Commissioner of Historic Preservation who has been a loyal supporter since helping us launch our preservation efforts in 2010.

We ended the year doing what we seem to do best – celebrating the Copake Iron Works. Thanks once again to the organizing magic of Robin and Deb, more than 100 visitors enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers and baked ziti during Winter Walk 2013, an annual holiday celebration in Copake Falls.

We are grateful to many generous contributors for making our work possible including New York State Parks Champion Lucy R. Waletzky, Edgar Masters, Margaret Roach and most recently, The William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

Making the acquaintance a year or so ago of several descendants of the Pomeroy family (the founders of the Copake Iron Works), was among the most exciting links we have discovered in pursuit of our history. Many of us involved with the preservation of the Copake Iron Works feel a special connection to the 19^th century Pomeroys, having spent so much time in the place they created. The Pomeroy Foundation’s magnificent grant to our Furnace Stabilization Project encourages us in our passion to preserve this special place in history.

We close by thanking YOU, our loyal membership whose support makes  it possible for us to continue to fulfill our mission: To support the activities – cultural, recreational, and historic – of Taconic State Park.

To learn more about our work, including our schedule of events for 2014, visit us on Facebook or at www.FriendsofTSP.org.

With deepest gratitude,

Mibs Zelley, President

Furnace Foundations, by Felicia Doughty Kingsbury (1951)

 Editor's Note:  Our good friend and History Advisory Board member Victor Rolando recently forwarded to our attention, a fascinating article written in 1951 by Felicia Doughty Kingsbury, who, that year, undertook a scholarly tour of the "Salisbury Iron District."  In 2011, historian Tyler Resch, uncovered Kingsbury's manuscript of that tour which included a spine tingling assessment of the Copake Iron Works.  We excerpt here the section on Copake Falls.  The entire article is available by clicking here.

Pictured, Felicia Doughty Kingsbury, photography contributed by Tyler Resch

"Furnace Foundations: A perceptive exploration of early blast furnaces in the Salisbury Ore District where Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York converge, conducted in the summer of 1951 by Felicia Doughty Kingsbury,  when working as curator of properties for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston."

Foreword by Tyler Resch (excerpt):

                Felicia Doughty Kingsbury was my mother-in-law, whom I knew well in her later years, long after her professional involvement with architecture, or archaeology, or her work with the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now known as Historic New England). She was an authority on old houses, was curator of SPNEA properties, and she edited its quarterly journal, Old-Time New England. Among the tools of her trade was an ice pick she carried to test the integrity of ancient beams. I wish that I had known her in her prime, when she was a strong and self-sufficient independent woman.  It was at the bottom of a box of her long-neglected papers and family photographs that I happened recently upon this manuscript that describes her studious tour of the blast furnaces of the Salisbury Ore District in the summer of 1951.

[Kingsbury's study of Copake begins here:]

It was impossible to thank “our local historian” adequately for so much generosity of time and information, and I felt very solitary again and without guidance, as I turned north to find the furnace of the Copake Iron Co., now within Taconic State Park.

                                Another glance at a road map will show that the park covers a large area and is not marked clearly to show access or entrance. I had long heard it said that it is one of our most beautiful and best maintained state parks: a mountainous wilderness made into a playground. In such a place a blast furnace would be as a needle in a haystack, but Copake Falls is shown on the map, and this had been named as the general location of the furnace. I found it also to hold the main entrance to the park, and without difficulty reached the house of the park superintendent near at hand. He was a busy man, for several cars were already parked there arranging for camping privileges.  Park activities were much in evidence, for across the road a grove sheltered a small village of cabins and recreational buildings from which issued the clatter of dishes and the strains of community song. Just to the left, a gravel road crossed the main one and was lined with prim little white clapboarded Victorian houses. These apparently were occupied by park rangers and help. At the junction of the two roads the main road was closed off by stone posts with a chain across and a sign saying “Positively No Admittance.” Beyond the gateposts the road narrowed but led as straight as could the shortest distance between two points, to Copake Furnace itself.

                                The superintendent was a shrewd, firm man, hard-pressed with the responsibility of keeping the forest and the tenderfeet from doing each other any harm. Conditioned by summer campers who habitually think themselves the one exception to every rule, it was generous of him to take down the no-admittance sign, to trust me to park by the no=parking sign, and to leave me alone with his precious park tools and machinery, to study the furnace at will.

                                The furnace of the Copake Iron Company shows the most modern equipment of any in the Salisbury Ore District, partly because its operation did not cease until 1902, and party, it is said, because the company was exceptionally progressive in an industry noted for conservatism, and was always ready to adopt a new method. A modern flight of steps led to the top of the loading platform behind the furnace, and from there it was possible to survey the general plan of the works.

                                A narrow valley hardly more than a pocket is enclosed by steep and heavily wooded slopes. At each end of the furnace area and perhaps a mile apart, ravines block the level stretch of valley floor. Furnace activities occupied the entire stretch of miniature intervale and had been laid out in the orderly pattern of functionalism. The stream appeared at the upper ravine where an earth dam had a small gatehouse enclosed in walls of fine ashlar. It then skirted the base of the opposite slope and disappeared behind the barns and outbuildings of the superintendent’s house. Directly before me on the streambank a long brick building had probably contained company offices and possibly an engine house. Park officials were using it for much the same purpose now, though tractors and trucks parked near translated it to this century. A small brick building close to the road had the familiar scales outside, such as coal wagons use, and had been the weigher’s office. Looking back through the gate it was obvious from its size and location that the present superintendent’s house had always served such a use, and that the smaller house on the side road had been built for the furnace workers, probably foremen. The loading platform, on which I was standing, was approached from the woods by a worn old cart track, the ore road, which followed along its top to descend to the lower ground beyond the furnace toward the gate. Immediately behind the furnace, on the platform, an additional foundation a few feet higher but flush with the road had been the abutment for the loading bridge to the furnace top, and just equaled it in height.

                                Only a few feet away, the furnace itself looked ragged and infirm. The four brick gothic arches rest upon foundations of masonry, the three heavy courses rising about four feet above grade vertically before the spring of the two-centered arch begins. The arches are very deep – eight to ten feet – and in good condition. In fact, the arches are the only part of the furnace visible from outside, which give an indication of its original structural character. The ashlar bases are all that is left, of the fine masonry that covered the exterior prior to its recent removal by the park authorities. The pile of rubble that the furnace now exposes was originally only the fill between inner lining and outer casing, and its roughness gives a false impression of a furnace belonging to an earlier period.

                                The furnace interior, however, is striking in its contrast to early ones, and presented several features that I had not heretofor encountered. Most conspicuous of these differences is the greatly increased amount of iron visible within the arches. The crucible is entirely or iron, made of curved plates bolted together to form a short cylinder about three feet high. Inside the crucible a lining of a single thickness of firebrick extends from floor upwards through the shaft. Above the crucible an air space about a foot deep surrounds the brick lining and is enclosed by another layer of brick, this one supported at the boshes, or about five feet six inches above grade, by a system of three iron beams which, in cross section, would look like I-beams. These like the iron crucible held channels that permitted them to be cooled by circulating water. Gauges by which to judge the water level were provided by the short vertical pipes terminated at the top by cups standing at each side of the inner arch. It is probable that many of the furnaces that operated in the latter part of the nineteenth century or later were at one time provided with iron crucibles and water cooling-down devices. The last two wars, however, have stimulated scavenging to such an extent that all blast furnaces in the area are said to have been combed for scrap. This would account for the emptiness of many furnaces visited, and makes Copake unique in still possessing equipment that illustrates the most modern development of the blast furnace achieved in the Salisbury Ore District.

President’s Letter– 2012 in Review

 

Mibs Zelley

Editor’s Note:  In her review of 2012, Board President Milbrey “Mibs” Zelley reports to you on our progress during the past year and our plans for this coming year.  We are grateful for her guidance and enthusiasm which have helped us achieve so much, especially this past year.


February 2013

Dear Friends, Neighbors and Loyal Supporters,

This past year was eventful and event-filled for Friends of Taconic State Park.

First Day Hike 2012

We hosted garden lectures by Page Dickey and Ken Druse, and offered numerous hikes in and around the park including our first First Day Hike with Founding Board President Jane Peck, a Hidden Valley Ramble in connection with the Hudson River Valley Ramble, tree lover hikes with board member and #1 tree guy Jim Mackin and an invigorating hike with Claudia Farb from Sunset Rock to Catamount.

Hidden Valley Ramble - Sept. 2012

Tree Hikes with Jim Mackin

  

First Day Hike 2013

Soup for Everyone!

In June we hosted our first Pomeroy Party, celebrating our re-connection with the descendants of Lemuel Pomeroy, the founder of the Copake Iron Works.  Our participation was an important part of the Fifth Copake Falls Day, with informative tours of the historic Copake Iron Works led by History Advisory Board member Victor Rolando and Jim Mackin. We were also a popular participant in the first ever Copake Falls Winter Walk, offering homemade butternut squash soup and home baked popovers at the Iron Works.

Furnace Cover- Finished!

Our major accomplishment, however, was the completion of the protective cover for the historic Copake Iron Works blast furnace. Ground was broken in the fall of 2011 when the four concrete footings were poured. During the ensuing winter months, the massive legs and cross beams were constructed off site by an able and devoted construction crew. Edgar Masters masterminded the project and contributed the expert labor of his employees Jim Conklin, and Tom Flaherty. Indispensable volunteer Bob Callahan worked tirelessly alongside Jim, Tom and Edgar.

Edgar Masters & Don Oestrander

Bob Callahan &Tom Flaherty

Tom &Bob

             



 In early spring and summer of 2012, the huge components were trucked to the site by equipment and drivers provided by Ed Herrington, Inc.

Herrington's Moves Mountains...

...and 50', 3 ton furnace cover pieces too.

   

Lawrence D. Coon & Sons - many cranes make light work Aug. and Oct. 2012

Once the pieces were at the site, Lawrence D. Coon & Sons – the barn building firm of record in Columbia County - assembled the pieces, and with their four giant cranes carefully lifted and dropped them into place on the footings.

Furnace Fest November 2012

Day by day, we saw our vision become a reality, and in November, at Furnace Fest, the big red ribbon was cut…project completed!
Now, the massive cover, which is the same height and shape as the original building, draws attention to all passing by on both Route 344, as well as Valley View Road!

Tim Schroder

Grateful thanks to so many people for making this possible: to Ann and Doug Clark and Tim Schroder of Clark Engineering & Surveying, P.C. for their extraordinary pro bono contribution of time and talent.  To Don Oestrander, Mike Wheeler, Pete Stalker, and Richard and Ed Herrington of Ed Herrington, Inc. for numerous trips up and down High Valley Road in flatbed trucks; to the Hudson River Bank & Trust Company Foundation, the Rheinstrom Hill Community Foundation, the Society for Industrial Archaeology, and to the New York State Environmental Protection Fund for leadership grants awarded to this project; and to our many generous individual donors, both nearby and far away, whose willingness to give of their treasure helped make the project a reality.

Margaret Roach

Ray Doherty

Rose Harvey and Lucy Waletzky

We  extend deepest thanks to Lucy D. Waletzky, Chair of the New York State Council on Parks and Rose Harvey, Commissioner of New York State Parks, whose enthusiasm for our work helped draw attention to our project from throughout the state; to Ray Doherty, former Taconic State Park manager and now general manager of the Taconic Region, whose early support made our work possible, to our neighbor Margaret Roach for her abiding support of and commitment to our efforts; and to the entire Board of Directors who worked tirelessly to bring the project to completion.

Board of Directors 2011/2012

Edgar M. Masters

Last, but certainly not least, it was the can-do man with the vision, Edgar M. Masters, who imagined that such a project was possible and whose drive and energy throughout the long construction process brought the dream to reality!

Now to the future! First of all, we must stabilize the furnace itself. Long years of exposure to the wind, rain and snow, as well as the ravages of weeds and scavengers, have severely weakened the four arches of the furnace, as well as its interior. Unless we want our beautiful cover to be covering nothing but a pile of rubble, the work of stabilization must begin immediately. We have already begun to raise funds for this work, and will be actively seeking additional support to realize this goal by the end of the year.

Remedial work is also desperately needed at two other important historic buildings at the site: both the machine/pattern shop, and the worker's cottage called the Link House must be stabilized. We cannot allow these buildings, which tell such an important part of the story of the Copake Iron Works, to deteriorate further.

 We also plan to complete a trail connecting the Copake Iron Works to the Bash Bish Falls along the south side of the Bash Bish Stream in early spring. The Fish Pond Trail will pass by a reconstruction of a charcoal hearth and the holding ponds which once supplied the water for the early water wheel, the first power source for the bellows which kept the furnace in blast. We hope that the completion of this trail will bring the many annual visitors to the Bash Bish Falls back to the Copake Iron Works and will provide an interesting additional piece to the story of the iron industry at Copake Falls.

We will also be continuing our programs of lectures, and trail and nature hikes throughout 2013 beginning with our annual President’s Day “Snow or No” snowshoeing event on Monday, February 18th.



Our third annual Welcome Spring event on March 23rd will feature a presentation by Ken Greene of the renowned Hudson Valley Seed Library; on April 20th, Brian Boom of the New York Botanical Garden (and an FTSP board member) will present ,"Earth Day Reflections on the Environment in Cuba," on May 11th, celebrated plantsman Lee Reich will present “Backyard Fruit Simplified,” and on June 8^th, noted botanist Robert Naczi of the New York Botanical Garden will lead a wildflower walk in the park. Our contribution to Copake Falls Day, this year on August 17^th, will include (and feature!) The Fabulous Beekman Boys – more to come on that event.

Our complete calendar is on our website with timely updates on our Facebook page.  The latter has become an essential resource for us.  We urge you to follow us there.


And finally, we are delighted to be collaborating with our neighbors in Mount Washington (MA) who are creating a museum exhibit on the history of charcoal making in the 19^th century. Their work will be exhibited at the Ironworks museum this summer.  More details on our website and via Facebook as they become available.

To keep abreast of our activities, please follow us on Facebook and check our website. Please also mark your calendar now for the Fifth Potluck Supper and Annual Meeting of Friends of Taconic State Park on July 25^th.

But most important of all, please join or renew your membership in Friends of Taconic State Park. Your support is so essential in making our beautiful park an exciting place to visit.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Milbrey Zelley, President
Friends of Taconic State Park

Furnace Cover Campaign Launch–October 2010

Editor’s Note:  Friends of Taconic State Park launched its furnace cover campaign in October 2010 at a gathering of neighbors, friends and other supporters concerned about the preservation of the historic Copake blast furnace.   J. Winthrop Aldrich, retired New York State Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, was the keynote speaker at that event.  We are proud to have completed both the fundraising campaign and the construction project on time, thanks in part to his inspirational remarks which follow.
Friends of the Taconic State Park October 23, 2010
I’m delighted to be back at this wonderful park which, as you know, is one of the original State Parks in the Taconic Region, dating back to 1928. It marvelously combines all three elements that are proclaimed in the agency’s name: parks, recreation and historic preservation. To put it another way, you could adopt as the Friends’ motto one that I heard the other day on the radio: “history is in our nature.”
And indeed it is – for it was nature in the form of iron ore, water power and firewood that made the industrial history of this place, and it is nature in a much more nurturing manner that has been making it a beloved site of public recreation for campers, hikers and swimmers for over 80 years. This then-and-now, bifocal, history of Copake Falls and of the environs of romantic Bash Bish summons up the image beloved of students of American history: the “machine in the garden.”
I must tell you that personally I love this sort of synergy. For over 35 years, first at the Environmental Conservation Department and then at State Parks, I have espoused the convergence of culture and nature as one unified precious environment demanding our protection and enjoyment. It seems to me that you as a Friends group are very much on this same mission.
Even in these tough economic times the stewards of this park do a terrific job and I am happy to add my word of praise for all that Ray has done to foster Taconic State Park, to your good fortune (he is now promoted to Region-wide responsibilities but continues here as well); Garrett Jobson, who has efficiently advanced the plans for the splendid new building at the Ore Pit swimming area, and who also has now been given larger responsibilities; and it is great to see a Commission member here, Art Gellert, and a soon-to-be Commission member, carrying on a grand family tradition, your own Edgar Masters.
But these ARE tough times, and the stabilization plans for the historic furnace that Larry Gobrecht, Tom Schofield and others developed years ago have languished. They languish no longer! It is truly wonderful news that this iconic structure from the 1870’s will be getting a sheltering cover that will greatly slow its deterioration and assist in telling the story of industry in this place.
Make no mistake – it is an important story: the iron industry hereabouts was one of the earliest extractive and manufacturing enterprises in the country, dating back to the mid-18^th century and Philip Livingston, Second Lord of the Manor. But what arose at Copake Falls in the 1840’s was a sophisticated, well-financed, state-of-the-art business that took advantage of the railroad and created what was a company town. A glance at the published maps or at the diorama leads us to explore for the remnants underfoot (such as the old narrow-gauge railbed) or in plain sight (Upjohn’s lovely Episcopal chapel). The remnants are here. Industrial archaeology is increasingly championed as an important element in our American heritage.
Here we are within the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, which celebrates the region as a “corridor of commerce” among other signal attributes. Yet we can point to remarkably few actively promoted, publicly accessible heritage sites associated with industry and commerce. You have one of the few right here, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, and the Greenway folks should be promoting it along with your efforts and those of State Parks.
Another nice then-and-now link is the fact that an important product of the company was iron ploughshares, many of which were put to work on neighboring lands such as the still-operating Langdonhurst Farms in this breadbasket valley now vitalized by C.S.A.s.
Fifty years ago Freeman Tilden came up with a credo that I think applies beautifully here at this park and this heritage site:
Through interpretation comes understanding;
Through understanding comes appreciation;
Through appreciation comes protection.
Viable iron mining and manufacturing may have departed our region for the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and elsewhere in the 1890’s, but we must nevertheless understand, appreciate and protect what remains from this heritage. Emphatically that is what this exciting project is about.
I am deeply impressed that a third of the estimated $150,000 cost is already committed as in-kind services – skilled labor, materials, use of equipment. This project is doable, and it is really important that it be done. I congratulate the Friends’ board, members and advisory committee on all that they have already achieved, and for receiving the 2010 Heritage Award from the Columbia County Historical Society for your commitment to this industrial heritage.
I relish the notion of families coming to camp, swim and hike in these beloved lands, and returning home with their imagination enhanced by visions of man’s long-ago very different use of these same resources. It is from such a bifocal vision that a true understanding and appreciation of nature and culture will emerge.
Our parks and historic sites have never needed their friends more surely than they do today in in this bleak and problematic political and fiscal climate. We must all be grateful that your Friends group is on the job. I wish you all success in this grand endeavor!
J. Winthrop Aldrich
(retired as New York State Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation on October 1, 2010)

How Much Does a Ton of Iron Weigh? by Victor Rolando

Editor's Note:  One of of our favorite "Ironmasters" is good friend Victor Rolando whose love of all things related to industrial archeology is an inspiration to the leadership of Friends of Taconic State Park in their work preserving the Copake Iron Works.  In this fascinating article, Vic asks the time honored question...

How much does a ton of iron weigh? (or, “Let the researcher Beware!”)

                                                                 by Victor R. Rolando

Vic Rolando, Friend to Troubled Furnaces Everywhere!

   One of the problems in attempting to compare the tons of iron made by 19^th-century blast furnaces are the various definitions of a “ton.” There was, for example, an English long ton, which weighed 2,240 pounds (also called a “gross ton”) and contained 20 hundred-weights (cwt) of 112 pounds (lbs) each. Although called a “hundred-weight,” it weighed 112 lbs so it could be evenly divided into halves, quarters, and eights (an eighth of a cwt is 14 lbs, called a “stone”). This weight system carried over to Colonial America and continued in use for the iron industry well into the early to mid-1800s. After the American Revolutionary War, the 112-lb cwt was dropped in favor of a 100-lb hundredweight, which translates into a 2,000-lb ton, avoirdupois (advp), also known as the short ton (some in Britain call the US hundredweight a “cental”).

   It’s not unusual to see tonnages of early blast furnaces listed in 19^th-century hand-written ledgers as, for example: 2T, 14Cwt, 2Q, 18 lbs, or simply “2.14.2.18” (4,000  + 1,400  + 50 + 18 lbs) which totals 5,468 lbs or 2.734 short tons. Although the US and Europe adopted various “weights & measures standards” by the 1860s, many local industries that did little or no interstate or foreign trade maintained their own archaic bookkeeping systems. By the late 1800s the European iron industry was using a “centner” as the common unit of pig iron measure, in which 1 centner = 110.23 lbs, or exactly 5% of a metric ton that equals 1,000 kilograms (kg) or 2,204.6 lbs advp. The metric ton is used in today’s commodities market for iron and steel.

   History books abound with tonnages of various commodities without identifying which tonnage systems they refer to. Even books relating specifically to the iron industry rarely make the distinction. And although most iron researchers realize that the long ton has long been the rule for the iron industry, paragraphs dealing with tons of iron, ore, charcoal, blasting powder, lumber, and molding sand beg the question whether the actual weights of all those items are based on 2,000-lb, 2,204.6-lb, or 2,240-lb tons. By reading closely how some tonnages are described in terms of value per ton and total values, whether they are short or long tons can sometimes be estimated, at best. Using this scrutiny of data, one 1966 history of the early iron industry in downstate New York was found to quote furnace outputs in terms of short tons. On the other hand, a 1911 survey of Maryland ironworks was found to define outputs in long tons. If one is unaware of these differences, direct comparisons of pig iron production and furnace efficiency could be difficult at the least, or completely erroneous at worst. 

   For example: of the various historical accounts of how much iron was made at the Copake blast furnace, the only two reliable detailed 19^th-century accounts come from reports by William G. Neilson (1842-1906) and J.P. Lesley (1819-1903).

   In Neilson’s report on the charcoal iron industry in New England, compiled for the American Iron and Steel Association in 1866, he stated that the furnace “at Copake Station” made “about 2800 tons (gross)” in 1865.  His tables of various furnace specifications elsewhere in the report indicate the furnace made from 1743 tons in 1854, 505 tons in 1855, and 1513 tons in 1856 (among tonnages up to 3387 tons in 1866 with none made from 1857 through 1860). To his credit, his tables also identify tonnages listed at 2,000 lbs, so then why did he write “about 2800 tons (gross)” above, possibly inferring short tons?

   Lesley, an earlier chronicler of the US iron industry and Secretary to the America Iron Association in 1857, reported iron production at Copake at 160 tons “more or less” for each of 1854, 1855, and 1856 without identifying whether long or short tons. But in his 1859 report he stated that 1,556½ tons were made during 41 weeks in 1854; 451 tons during 14 weeks in 1855, and 1,350½ tons during 38 weeks in 1856. Analyzing the weekly output one finds the 3-year average is 35¼ tons/week, or essentially 5 tons a day within a very acceptable +7.7% to -8.5% variance, indicating an unexpectedly consistent level of production – “unexpectedly” given the number of things that could go wrong in a mid-19^th-century blast furnace operation. But attempting to apply this interesting piece of data is complicated by neither of Lesley’s 1857 nor 1859 publications identify whether his numbers reflect long or short tons. Although most of Lesley’s tonnages are smaller than Neilson’s, Lesley’s probably being long tons, unfortunately not nearly enough of Lesley’s tonnages convert very close to Neilson’s short tons. So whose are the more accurate figures?

   Starting in 1873, The American Iron & Steel Assn (founded in 1864 as successor to Lesley’s 1859 American Iron Assn), initiated publication of the biannual Directory of Iron and Steel Works of the United States. However comprehensive the publications were, vague references to tonnages persisted and comparisons between nearby like-capacity furnaces elude dependable conclusions. Regardless, the following on page 8 of the 1884 Directory under the heading of Charcoal Furnaces in New York State proves interesting:

Copake Iron Works, Frederick Miles, . . .  One stack, 32 x 9, built in 1872; open top; warm blast; steam and water power; ore, limonite, mined near the furnace; Specialty, car-wheel iron; annual capacity, 4,500 net tons. Brand: “Copake.”

There’s new one - a “net” ton!