Lake Oswego: Oswego Iron Furnace

This is another stop on Oregon's Mt. Hood Territory Heritage Trail. You may also find it listed as Oregon Iron Smelter or Foundry.

As it is, Oregon Iron was the company, and they built this, the first iron furnace on the Pacific Coast in 1866.

It was not the last built, but it is the last surviving furnace west of the Rockies, giving it importance both for its place in the timeline and its endurance.

This was one of our favorite locations on the trail. It has lots of well-designed signage making it easy to learn about the area, the workers, and the factory processes.

That includes two examples of "salamanders", the plugs of iron ore left over after the process.

I appreciated the use of timelines and graphs, along with text and photographs. All was well-designed.

In addition, it is now a nice park, with beautiful views and access to Lake Oswego.

There is public art and rest rooms.

Along with picnic benches, there are cooking areas that vaguely resemble the furnace.

You are relatively close to two other Heritage Trail stops: Oswego Heritage House and Rogerson Clematis Gardens. Other parks and trails are also nearby.

Given our past issues with navigating Lake Oswego, this was also relatively easy to find.

I have no reservations in recommending the Oswego Iron Furnace:

COVID: All outdoors. I can conceive it getting more crowded in summer, but at least for our trip distancing was easy.

Accessibility: This seemed pretty good. There were smooth paths, and these appeared to go all the way down to the shore, though we did not follow them that far.

https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oswego_iron_furnace/