We know now that the Dover Union Iron Works was more than just a little old
mill on a brook.
It was quite an elaborate mill complete with state of the art machines and technology - an integrated system of five dams and ponds to supply water - a huge and majestic overshot waterwheel - and buildings carefully designed to fit the site and make efficient use of available resources.
We also know of course that in the end the Dover Union Iron Company was a painful failure.
But the men who built it created something special and unique in Dover.
Their giant waterwheel was a wonder in its day and Robbins described it in a 1954 interview:
ÒI cannot say it is the largest, as large as it is, this thirty-six foot overshot waterwheel certainly was a giant for any day. I donÕt know if New England ever had a larger wheel, but they most certainly did not have one in this area because you havenÕt got the height to give it a head.....
I can say this ..... I donÕt think thereÕs any wheel in America or any wheel that had a wheelpit of the dimension you have here. Here is a wheelpit forty feet long, goes twenty feet below the working surface of the mill, laid up with these giant blocks of stone and a subterranean race.... I donÕt think you can find a pit to match that....
Now that I think is quite unique, quite unusual and
I donÕt think it can be matched anywhere in the
country....Ó
Today the great stone dam, wheelpit and mill foundations stand in Noanet Woodlands as monuments to the Dover men who built them nearly two hundred years ago. Reminders of the great ideas, industry and optimism of the ancient proprietors - Barden, Williams, the Chickerings, the Fishers, the Bacons, Clark and Adams and others.
These rustic ruins also are reminders of the foresight and generosity of Amelia Peabody and the energy and ability of Roland Robbins and the others who dug up this unique bit of DoverÕs past.
And as we enjoy tree-shaded trails and listen to birdsongs and the sounds of water falling where the giant old water wheel once turned we should stop a minute and think. How different Noanet Woodlands might be today if the water in Noanet Brook had been just a little more dependable... and the Iron Company had succeeded...and mills and industry had grown and flourished here.
RHV
8/9/00