To an enterprising man looking for a place to settle, the stream with its great water-power would be the main attraction. Besides, there was ore in those mountains.
	One of the first to take advantage of those two assets was a man named Lawrence Scrawley or Crowley a blacksmith, who, in 1750, owned a plating forge to be worked with a tilt hammer. It was unlawful to have such an industry in the colonies, and its existence had to be reported to the King. Governor George Clinton wrote that the forge had been there about four or five years but was not being used in 1750; also that it was the only one in the Province of New York. He described its location as being at a place called Wawayanda, about 26 miles from Hudson River. At the time, and for some decades after, the stream was known as the Wawayanda; and that name was also applied to the land bordering it. We cannot say where Lawrence Scrawley/Crowley came from or what became of him (Florence Tate)
	Reference: Text of Clinton’s letter is from p. 580, Ruttenber & Clark’s History of Orange County
	The Iron Act, strictly Importation, etc. Act 1750 (Statute 23 Geo. II c. 23) was one of the legislative measures introduced by the British Parliament, seeking to restrict manufacturing activities in British colonies, particularly in north America, and encourge manufacture to take place in Great Britain.
	The Act contained several provisions, applying from 24 June 1750:
	Duty on the import of pig iron from America should cease.
	Duty on bar iron imported to London should cease.
	Such bar iron might be carried coastwise or by land from there to Naval dockyards, but otherwise not beyond 10 miles from London.
	The iron must be marked with its place of origin.
	No mill or engine for slitting or rolling iron or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer or any furnace for making steel should be erected in America.
	Colonial governors were required to certify what mills of these types already existed.
	Other References: Pioneer Iron Works by Mary Stetson Clarke
	Science and Technology in Colonial America by William E. Burns.