Our Mission Statement
The Mission of Pond Lily Mill Restorations is to help everyone discover the history of flour milling, the technology, its developments, and its effects upon out culture, and to allow individuals develop beyond a basic understanding of mill technology.
Reference information on flour milling, water power, water wheels, and millstones is presented by Ted Hazen of Pond Lily Mill Restorations. Included are articles on Oliver Evans, the Fitz Water Wheel Company, millstone dressing, and the evolution of automated flour mill technology, as well as excerpts from historical texts such as "The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide." Mills and water power are still a practical and environmentally friendly alternative technology.
With the coming of the Great Smoky National Park; one pair of millstones was removed from the mill; the water wheel made much smaller in diameter, and changed from a pitch-back to an overshot; the end of the sluice box was made too far forward to show more water and generate less power; and the seperate miller's office (that was located across the tail race from the mill and had heat) was removed. A large bell once was mounted atop a pole beside the mill so customers could ring it to call the miller in from the orchard or fields. A water powered mill like this could grind much more grain that a smaller family operated "tub mill." There may have been a saw mill here besides the grist mill. Basically the mill was made to look more rural country and old timey. Some of the interior machinery in the Mingus Mill (on the North Carolina side of the Park) was also removed for the same reasons. There they turned a flour milling to a grist mill. On the second floor of the Mingus Mill is a large flour bolter that occupies almost the entire second floor.
The web pages contained within this site are created solely for public and private educational and research purposes. Please see: Rights and Reproductions of Material found in this Web Site. Site key search words are: Flour; flour milling; flour mills; mills; grist mills; custom mill; merchant mill; water power; water wheels; millstones; roller mills; archaic technology; millwright; flour & grist miller; miller's office; mill restoration; mill interpretation; mill artifacts; milling folklore; Oliver Evans; hopper-boy; Fitz Water Wheel; Campbell Water Wheel; Charles Howell; Peirce Mill; F. A. Drake's Mill; Dellinger Mill; Graves Mill; Esom Slone's Grist Mill; Barnitz Mill; Woodson's Mill; millstone dressing, and millstone dresser.
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Copyright 2001 by T. R. Hazen http://home.earthlink.net/~alstallsmith/index.html
