47) Saugus Iron Works

Visited: Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

At some national parks, the tours are more important than at others. Such is the case with Saugus Iron Works. The park is, mostly, a reconstruction of the iron works on the site from ~1646-1670; there is one house from shortly after the time of the iron works on the site, but we didn't visit it. (There's a separate tour that covers it.) The tour we did take - offered only once or twice a day - is rather amazing, showing how the blast furnace, forge, rolling and slitting mill, and a blacksmith shop in action; a ranger made nails, giving one to each of the children. The most impressive sight, though, was either the giant water wheel - or perhaps the smaller one that drove the 500 pound hammer.

All in all, it's very impressive; a much more active site than many of the historic locations. And - incredibly well removed from the city. So much so that a wedding party stopped by the site to take pictures, while we were there. It even managed to get Ben - who, being in surly teenager mode, didn't want to go - to admit that it was interesting.

46) Adams

Visited: Saturday, October 1st, 2011

I'd always thought it a bit odd that the name of the site is Adams National Historic Park, and not John Adams or John Quincy Adams or a combination. But now I understand why; a fair bit of the tour of the old house - the home both men retied to, which remained in the family until given to the NPS - is actually focused beyond those two men.

The Adams NHP is actually two sites (plus a visitor center). The first site is the birthplaces of both presidents Adams. It's very nice that they've been preserved, and they're interesting for their history - but not much beyond that; they're sparsely furnished with reproductions. The highlight then is the Old House, which contains four generations of collected furniture, paintings, books, and _house_, and is much easier to envision as it was used, as a result.

The trolley - which takes everyone from the visitor center to the two sites, and back again - makes for an easy site to visit in spite of the urban location.