KENT, Conn.—The Eric Sloane Museum at 31 Kent Cornwall Road will bring back its Iron Works Weekend Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17.
The program allows visitors to explore the history of ironmaking in the Housatonic Valley at the Kent Iron Works site, which is celebrating its bicentennial in 2026. The event will include special tours, exhibits and iron-smelting demonstrations. Master blacksmiths will smelt iron with a bloomery furnace using traditional methods and techniques.
The site of Kent Iron Company’s hot blast furnace has been in use for 200 years, The furnace, erected in 1826, sits on the site of an earlier blast furnace believed to have produced ammunition for Washington’s army as well as links for the chain that was strung across the Hudson River to prevent passage of British warships.
Admission is free to the museum and programs on May 16 and 17 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.