To everyone interested in the historic iron industry:

During the past two years, a group of historians, preservationists and iron
buffs have joined together to create the Highlands Iron Conservancy (HIC).
The organization is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the historic iron
industry in the Hudson Highlands region of New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, also known as the "Reading Prong".  We want to contact people
who may share our interests, who would like to help HIC, or who may need
help from us.

The Highlands Iron Conservancy, Inc., brings together dedicated people who
are already working hard to preserve individual iron sites and the story of
Highlands iron and iron workers.  We are looking at the iron industry itself
- its mines, forges, furnaces and foundries.  We are also concerned with the
fuels (charcoal and anthracite) used in smelting and in the transportation
of iron and fuel by wagon, rail, canalboat and ship.  We are interested in
the mining communities, their churches, schools, and families, as well as
their cultural and social lives.  If any of these subjects also interest
you, let us know.

We are not asking for money!  But we might ask you to provide us with
information about a particular site with which you are familiar, about
repositories with collections that have related material, or about the iron
industry in a particular county.  In New York, we are most concerned in
Rockland, Orange, Ulster, Putnam, Dutchess, and Columbia counties.  HIC is
in the beginning stages of developing a database of iron sites and another
of historic records that we want to make accessible on the "net".  We are
working to preserve iron sites and to find appropriate repositories for
historic records that are now inaccessible to scholars.

We will not try to duplicate the work already being done by existing
organizations in the region.  Rather, it is HIC's intention to support
existing groups, to lend them aid and expertise, and to provide tools to
further their missions.

If you would like to be kept informed about HIC, would like our help, or
have expertise or information that might help us, please let us know.  You
may contact me via E-mail or snail mail at the address below; the president,
Stephen M. Gross, at 71 Colonial Ave., Warwick NY 10990; or the secretary,
Dr. Michelle Figliomeni at the Orange County Historical Society, Clove
Furnace, Arden NY 10910.  We would really like to hear from those of you who
share our interest in the historic iron industry.

Sallie Sypher
25 Robert's Drive
Putnam Valley NY 10579
(914) 528-7895
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