Where History Meets the Trail

West Point Foundry Preserve in Cold Spring, NY is today an outdoor museum of what was once a factory for melting iron that is then poured into molds—a foundry—on the east bank of the Hudson River. It was established in 1817 because of the waterfall there that powered the factory.

Produced at the Foundry were municipal piping, cast-iron architectural elements, and cotton mill machinery as well as military armaments like guns and canons.

Indeed, the foundry gave the Union in the north a distinct advantage over the Confederates in the south during the Civil War (1861–1865) because many of America’s canons were built there at the time. Lincoln himself toured the factory when he visited the US Military Academy at West Point across the river.

During peacetime the first America,n locomotive was built there as well as the hull of the first American metal ship.

So, the West Point Foundry was in no small part instrumental in establishing America as an industrial superpower.

Outdoor museums are not generally my idea of a hike. Restorations, replicas, manicured lawns, interpretive panels, and audio guides are not what I seek on a trail. I prefer Nature in her purest form. Still, I love museums—indoors or out—but I visit them with a learning mindset, not hiking. So, when I learned that a waterfall was accessible via a short detour off the Preserve’s main trail—a waterfall dammed with what remained of a century-old rock wall at the end of a short trek in Nature—I quickly made plans. Books and trails are two things I love and it is rare, if ever, that I get to engage both learning and hiking mindsets in one outing.