Following the discovery of rich iron ore in 1826, this stretch of the Hudson River valley was occupied by a growing mining community that lasted until 1858. Mining ceased and the village was abandoned after a series of calamities, including the death of financial backer Archibald McIntyre, a downturn in the global economy, and devastating floods that washed out the dams. Much of the forest on the valley sides was cleared and burned for charcoal and firewood and used for building material, the Hudson was dammed for power, and a bustling community was hewn from the wilderness. Because there was no easy access to this remote location from settled areas in the Champlain Valley to the east, the community had to be self-reliant while also depending on supplies from the east and exports of iron to survive, and the difficult connection to eastern markets was one of the major reasons the operation was abandoned. By the late 1870s all of the Iron Era buildings except the McNaughton Cottage had deteriorated. The ruins that remain are from cottages built during the Club Era from 1876 to 1947 as hunting lodges, many on old Iron Era foundations. When nearby titanium mining began just before World War II, the hunting club leases ended and the buildings were modernized and occupied by mine workers, but the community was abandoned a second time in 1963 when the mining company relocated workers and their families to Newcomb. Water from the headwaters of the Hudson River powered industry and daily life in the valley, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt and his family were vacationing here in 1901 when he received word that President McKinley had been shot.