In the Nineteenth Century, wooden pegs were used for construction because metal products were so expensive. Come see an actual blacksmith in action with this labor intensive artisan industry. Red-hot iron will sizzle in a bucket of water. Before Caledonia was a state park, it was a village ironworks owned by abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. The Army of Northern Virginia burned Caledonia down on June 26, 1863 on the way to the small town of Gettysburg - a town that until then, few Americans had ever heard of.