Bear Mountain, Salisbury

Bear Mountain, Salisbury

The town of Salisbury, located in Litchfield County, is the state’s northernmost town and shares its western border with New York and its northern border with Massachusetts. Incorporated in 1741, the town, rich with iron ore, focused its early industry on mining. Salisbury iron gained fame from its use in the American Revolution. It later became the choice for quality gun material in the early 19th-century arms industry and the preferred source for cast iron railroad car wheels. Town mines operated until WW I, when they closed permanently. Today, Salisbury is predominately rural in nature and is home to numerous well-preserved historic districts as well as being part of the larger Salisbury Iron District.

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Site of the Revolutionary War Foundry, Salisbury

Salisbury Iron Forged Early Industry

Connecticut's bucolic northwest corner, with its Taconic Range, Berkshire Hills, and pastoral valleys, harbored a major iron industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. …[more]

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“Salisbury Collection.” https://ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/search/mods_titleInfo_title_mt%253A%2528Salisbury%2529%20OR%20mods_subject_geographic_mt%253A%2528Salisbury%2529?islandora_solr_search_navigation=0&f%255B0%255D=-mods_subject_geographic_ms%253A%2522Massachusetts%255C%20%255C%2528state%255C%2529%2522&f%255B1%255D=-mods_subject_geographic_ms%253A%252226%255C%20Salisbury%255C%20Street%255C%20%255C%2528Worcester%252C%255C%20Mass.%255C%2529%2522.
J.W. Lewis & Company. 1881. History of Litchfield County, Connecticut, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of the Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Company. http://www.archive.org/stream/historyoflitchfi00jwle#page/n1/mode/2up.
Pawloski, John. 2006. Connecticut Mining. Charleston,  SC: Arcadia.
Kirby, Ed. 1998. Echoes of Iron in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner: With a Field Guide to the Iron Heritage Trail. Sharon, CT: Sharon Historical Society.
Gordon, Robert. 2001. A Landscape Transformed: The Ironmaking District of Salisbury, Connecticut. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
“Salisbury Cannon Museum.” 2009. http://www.salisburycannonmuseum.org/ (November 12, 2011).
Visions of Iron. 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgPocrRQAak&feature=youtube_gdata_player (March 19, 2012).