Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27 and 28, Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, Michigan, will host the annual Black Iron Days Festival at the park’s logging museum. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, blacksmiths will pound and shape metal into a range of practical and decorative items.Visitors can watch glowing iron bend like clay and hear the ring of hammer meeting steel. The sights, sounds and scents of a 1912 steam-powered sawmill cutting pine logs into boards will add to the activity at the site. Other craft demonstrations will include period music, woodworking, weaving and wool spinning.
The Hartwick Pines Logging Museum, part of the Michigan History Center, interprets the white pine logging era of 1840-1910. The Black Iron Days Festival is sponsored by the Friends of Hartwick Pines, and all proceeds go toward the interpretive and educational programs offered at Hartwick Pines State Park.
For more information about Black Iron Days or other programs at Hartwick Pines, please call 989-348-2537 or visit www.michigan.gov/hartwickpinesvc. There is no charge for attending Black Iron Days, but a Recreation Passport is required for park entry.
