Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site — Attraction in Saugus

We visited on a Friday morning in mid-June 2025.

There were plenty of spots left in the small parking lot. There was mini bus with kids too that looks like a small private school or home school. There were a good number of trees so some spots were shaded.

We made it just in time to tag along to the waterwheel demonstrations at 10AM Friday and Saturday. We walked into the visitor center and they immediately said to go now to not miss the demonstration. It was 100% worth it. Super cool to watch how they harnessed the water to make iron. Some of it is very loud so be aware.

We finished in enough time to head back to the visitor center and get our National Park Service Passport Cancellation Stamps and ask for Junior Ranger Booklets. We also had time to explore the museum directly adjacent to the visitor center. There are some interactive elements in there and a room with TV and chairs with a film playing. After doing all that we still had some time to join the Iron Works House Tour at 11AM. There is a set number of folks they can let into the House at a time and there were a lot of us so they were nice enough to split us into 2 groups and allowed us to do 2 separate tours of the house. I don't think they were used to having this many people show up for the tour. The House tour was interesting but no where near as cool as the Waterwheel Demonstration. Try to coordinate your visit to see it!

We quickly left after the house tour as we had any more stops for the day on our road trip. Overall we would come back again as we were rushed to see many of the things. If we were in the area it would be cool to do some more exploring of the very large national...

We were visiting from California. National Parks are our thing to do when we are on vacation or we might not have thought to stop here. Even two weeks later, the thirteen year old says this was a highlight of our 2400 mile drive through New England.

The history here is amazing. Who knew that this was the first iron works in America?! They have done a great job restoring the water wheels and the parts for the works . There is also a blacksmith shop on site that, I am told, has live demonstrations on the weekends.

The rangers and docents on site were informative and courteous.

The exhibits in the museum explain how the process worked as well as how the parts were exhumed after many years of non-use. While we were here in the morning, this would be a great place for a...

This place is amazing. It is a national historic site, with no entry fee/tours and museums are free. We went for both tours at 11 am (The Iron Works House) and 2 pm (Industrial site), our guide, Ranger Paul was absolutely amazing, he shared lots of information, connected the history facts, and with 2 other Rangers (do not remember the names) run water over the waterwheels at the forge and the warehouse to show us how they worked in around 1650. Lots of information, bog ore and gabbro samples, informative short movie at the museum, artifacts from archaeological work. Really nice amazing place. We learned a lot!! There is also a short river walk where you can see turtles, Canadian ducks and mallard ducks, and...