While many have an a romantic image of a giant waterwheel turning on the side of a rustic rural mill, in reality most mills had converted over to steel turbines by the turn of the 20th Century.
While Bollinger Mill no longer operates, you can still see the various machines, gears and other accoutrements that transformed water power into machine power.
The massive timbers holding up the building are impressive in their own right.
Throughout the mill are various signs that were hand painted by the operators; the spelling sometimes can be interesting.
My friend, the OSHA inspector, just had a heart attack…I wonder how fine the grain of flour could be obtained by the old methods?
Beautiful pictures! So interesting. I went to my first covered bridge/mill in Bridgeton Indiana a few weeks back. That mill still operates and was able to buy pumpkin pancake mix…Yum – ground right there!
They used to climb out the door on the top floor onto the roof; talk about OSHA violations.