MacIntyre Iron Company Maps

The vast Adirondack Mountains were one of New York State’s last untamed wilderness regions, and historical maps tell the story of how this area was explored, charted, developed and settled from the 1700s through the present day. This collection of maps comes from the MacIntyre Iron Company, which operated at the Tahawus mines near Newcomb, NY. In 1839, Archibald McIntyre founded the MacIntyre Iron Works, which began as the Adirondac [sic] Iron and Steel Company, in the Adirondack Mountain town of Newcomb, New York. McIntyre and his partners were searching for silver in the Adirondack Mountains when they discovered iron ore. McIntyre quickly began purchasing land in the area and establishing the necessary infrastructure to mine and process the ore. The company made iron and steel products - such as chains, sheet iron, bolts, and nails - and at the company's height, McIntyre owned over 100,000 acres within Essex and Hamilton Counties. These maps document activities of the MacIntyre Iron Works and the Champlain and Sanford Railroad Company, which was organized to transport ore, with lines running from the mines on Lake Sanford to Addison Junction, near Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. The railroad was never completed.