Penfield Homestead Museum

Greetings Friends and Neighbors - it's 2021!

A great weekend at the Crown Point Historic Site to celebrate the Centennial of Suffrage. Remember to Register!

If you want to experience the Centennial Celebration of Suffrage take a ride to Bennington Vermont this Sunday. Remember to register before going.

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During this time of health emergency please venture into the outdoors especially the Champlain Area Trails and start with the two trails at Penfield Homestead Museum. Visit their website www.champlainareatrails.com and use their maps and descriptions of area hiking/walking trails.

Here is an article from 2008 that gives details on the wonderful photograph of the members of the A.E. Phelps Fire Company in 1908.

We are on the PassagePort Journey of Iron in Crown Point and Moriah - Next stop, Site 6. Penfield Homestead Museum Railroads Kick Start the Age of Iron. It was... two adventurous boys that led to the discovery of the most important ore beds in Crown Point: A boy hunting for bees on his father’s property in 1821 uncovered what would become the Hammond Ore Bed. Just five years later, another boy, named R. L. Cram, was hunting for partridge only a short distance from the Hammond Bed. As he grasped a bush to pull himself up a steep mountainside the whole mass detached from the rock, revealing shining ore beneath. He took samples of it to his father, who owned the land. His father opened the bed, realized the value, and soon sold it to Allen Penfield and Timothy Taft (who sold his interest several years later). This bed was known as the Penfield Iron Ore Bed. The bed had six different openings, the bed varying in thickness from five to 30 feet. The ore was black, containing no sulfur, and only a slight trace of phosphorus. In other words, it was quite pure and valuable. Read more and listen to the audio here: http://passageport.org/iron-st/6-penfield-homestead-museum/ Photo by Morris

The Story of Iron in Crown Point and Moriah continues with Site 5. Driving to the Penfield Homestead Museum via Creek Road Iron Processing Technology Develops. ...Towns like Moriah and Crown Point developed the self-sufficiency that early inhabitants needed for successful settlement. They built grist mills to process grains and sawmills to provide lumber to build the mills and houses. Iron was needed in the building of those facilities and for farming tools. Commercial mining ventures appeared in Essex County in the mid to late 18th and early 19th centuries. However, small-scale iron mining and manufacturing was common too. Farmers and other locals would mine and work iron found on their property for supplemental income or to produce tools and farm equipment. All of this required waterpower, and in Crown Point that source was Putnam Creek. In part due to its significant vertical drop, it became an industrial river, powering upwards of 100 water wheels at mills over its seven-mile course to Lake Champlain. Each of the major waterpower sites along the creek provided the nucleus for a hamlet. Water powered wheels that milled grain for flour, spun wool, cut timber into lumber, ground bark for tanneriesand hammered impurities out of smelted iron. Visit the website to read more and to listen to the audio: http://passageport.org//5-driving-to-the-penfield-homeste/