Northeastern community newspaper chronicles life inside a Vermont foundry

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside a foundry? James Patterson, photographer for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and white River Junction, Vt., took an inside look at the Vermont Castings Foundry, which moves 85 tons of brake rotors and scrap iron each day. "It is melted, molded, drilled and ground into the parts that become wood stoves at the company's assembly plant in Bethel," Patterson writes. 

Joe Beauchemin, who has worked at the foundry for 28 years, told Patterson, "I can remember being in high school and seeing people come out of here and saying, 'I'm never going to work there.' It grows on you." Patterson writes, "The work's physical demands and the extreme temperatures in parts of the foundry are daunting to some, but long-term employees like Beauchemin have made it their lives and project a sense of pride into their product." (Read more)