West Point Foundry
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The West Point Foundry was an early ironworks in Cold Spring, New York that operated from 1817 to 1911.
The impetus for its creation came from James Madison, who, after the War of 1812, wanted to establish domestic foundries to produce artillery. Cold Spring was an ideal site: timber for charcoal was abundant, there were many local iron mines, and the nearby Margaret's Brook provided waterpower to drive machinery. The site was guarded by West Point, across the Hudson River, and the river provided facile shipping for finished products.
The West Point Foundry Association was incorporated by Gouverneur Kemble, a local citizen, and the foundry began operation in 1817. Artillery was tested by firing across the Hudson at the desolate slopes of Storm King Mountain, which would have to be swept for unexploded ordnance in 1999 as a result. The platform used for mounting artillery for proofing was uncovered during Superfund work in the early 1990s. Besides artillery, the foundry also produced iron fittings for civilian uses, such as pipe for the New York City water system and sugar mills for shipment to the West Indies. A number of early locomotives were cast at the foundry, including the Best Friend of Charleston, the DeWitt Clinton, Phoenix, and Experiment.
In 1835, Captain Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point graduate, was appointed inspector of ordnance from the foundry. The next year, he resigned his commission and on October 31, 1836 was appointed superintendent of the foundry. It prospered under his tenure, and was the site of numerous experiments with artillery and projectiles, culminating in his invention of the Parrott rifle in 1860. During this period, the foundry also manufactured USS Spencer in 1843, a revenue cutter which was the first iron ship built in the U.S.
The foundry's operations peaked during the American Civil War due to military orders: it had a workforce of 1,400 people and produced 2,000 cannon and three million shells. Parrott also invented an incendiary shell which was used in an 8-inch Parrott rifle (the "Swamp Angel") to bombard Charleston.
In 1867, Parrott resigned as superintendent, although he continued to experiment with artillery designs until his death in 1877. Business at the foundry declined as it faced competition from more modern techniques of iron and steel production. It had discontinued the use of charcoal and begun to import coal from Pennsylvania around 1870. However, it was unable to stave off receivership in 1884 and bankruptcy in 1889. It was sold in 1897 to the Cornell brothers, makers of sugar mills, and closed in 1911.
Of the buildings on the site, only the central office building remains intact; the rest are in ruins. A major archaeological study of the site, funded by Scenic Hudson and undertaken by Michigan Tech, is underway.
[edit] External links
- History of West Point Foundry
- West Point Foundry Archaeology Project
- A Village Born of Iron: Trouble in the Ravine
- A Village Born of Iron: A Long Road Ended
- Abandoned Mine Research. Shows Several Mines of the Parrott Iron Company
