102 ADIRONDAC. 



The Adirondac Iron Works belong to the past. 

 Over thirty years ago a company in Jersey City pur- 

 chased some sixty thousand acres of land lying along 

 the Adirondac River and abounding in magnetic iron 

 ore. The laud was cleared, roads, dams, and forges 

 constructed, and the work of manufacturing iron be- 

 gun. 



At this point a dam was built across the Hudson. 

 the waters of which flowed back into Lake Sandford, 

 about five miles above. The lake itself being some 

 six miles long, tolerable navigation was thus estab- 

 lished for a distance of eleven miles, to the Upper 

 Works, which seem to have been the only works in 

 operation. At the Lower Works, besides the remains 

 of the dam, the only vestige I saw was a long low 

 mound, overgrown with grass and weeds, that sug- 

 gested a rude earth-work. We were told that it was 

 once a pile of wood containing hundreds of cords, cut 

 in regular lengths and corded up here for use in the 

 furnaces. 



At the Upper Works, some twelve miles distant, 

 quite a village had been built, which was now entirely 

 abandoned, with the exception of a single family. 



A march to this place was our next undertaking. 

 The road for two or three miles kept up from the 

 river and led us by three or four rough, stumpy farms. 

 It then approached the lake and kept along its shores. 

 It was here a dilapidated corduroy structure that 

 jompelled the traveler to keep an eye on his feet 

 Blue jays, two or three small hawks, a solitary wil<? 



