There’s Iron In Them Hills


Iron ore can be seen locally in many spots. Seen here behind the Washington County Highway facility in Whitehall, NY, iron production is referenced in many historical writings.

During the nineteenth century the Adirondacks were mined for iron ore. Streaks of iron ore can still be seen in local rock outcroppings today.

The Adirondack Iron Works company was one company that mined in the Adirondacks. Iron deposits were first found in Tahawus (also called Adirondac, Adirondak, or McIntyre) in the Town of Newcomb, Essex County, in 1826 by Archibald McIntyre and David Henderson.

Impurities of titanium dioxide were present in the iron, which made it difficult for equipment of that era to properly process the ore. A local flood and a nationwide economic crisis were also factors in the closure of the Upper Works.

The village was abandoned in 1856, but a portion of the property was redeveloped 20 years later into the first sportsmen’s club in the Adirondacks, the Tahawus Club.

In a strange twist of historical fate, the club, located at the gateway to the High Peaks, was the site where Vice President Theodore Roosevelt learned that President McKinley had been shot. In September 1901, upon hearing the news that President William McKinley was near death from injuries sustained by an assassin’s bullet, Roosevelt embarked from the McNaughton Cottage at the Tahawus Club on his historic midnight ride along the back roads of the Adirondacks to the North Creek railroad station. At the station, Roosevelt received a telegram informing him that President McKinley had died of his injuries. As a result, Roosevelt became our nation’s 26th president.