GDG- Hall's Rifle works

[CWMHTours at aol.com]

Missing from conversation of rifles and Harpers Ferry is  Hall's Rifle 
works.
 
Someone else may know better than me but at Harpers Ferry in a  collection 
of islands in the Shenandoah on the Harpers Ferry side was Halls  Rifle 
Works.  The large island was, I think, Virginius Island.
 
While the landscape is quite beautiful I think it is also  rather 
melancholy.  The complex rivaled the H F gov't works in size and if  it was larger I 
would not be surprised.
 
The ordinary visitor can't see it but there are all sorts of  extant water 
wheel canals/channels visible.  Some heavy stone walls mostly  in the ground 
but the whole bit of sketchy remains got on for 100s of  feet.
 
Maybe someone knows better than me but I am under the  impression that they 
both subcontracted work from the gov. H F works and also  produced their 
own weapons.
 
What records they may have done in musket-to-rifle conversions  may still 
be around.
 
Any GDG-ers going to H F would be advised to buy the excellent  NPS HF 
guidebook and go poke around the ruins.  It is pretty  impressive.
 
Many people don't know this but the Potomac rivershed is one  of the 
largest sheds on the east coast. It is quite a phenomenon when it  floods.  Much 
of Mall can get immersed and John Grim will tell you all  sorts of flood 
stories in Alexandria.  They have a flood marker post by the  river notated up 
to some 10 or 15 feet.
 
I guess the Shenandoah floods just completely washed away most  of the 
heavy stone blocks making up the Halls works.  You can see some  scattered out 
in the Shen and Pot Rs.  It is too bad it got so  destroyed.
 
If you are interested you ought to be able to find Hall's  Rifle Works 
online.
 
 
A  Loyal Neo-Anti Unionist,
Peter