Paradise Point … the old grist mill

July-August, 2019

The title of this blog, “the old grist mill”, reminds me of that old-timey song “the old gray mare she ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be, the old gray mare she ain’t what she used to be, many long years agoooooo.”

Well, this old 1875 grist mill certainly IS what she used to be, she still is a working grist mill! Read on and I’ll tell you all about it.

This was my last day camping at Paradise Point State Park near Ridgefield, WA. Holy smokes had I seen a lot of stuff. But there was one more thing in the area I wanted to see. It was something I knew nothing about, but that never stops me. In fact I love to learn, so when there’s something I know nothing about, that’s when I purposefully go there.

My drive to this place that I knew nothing about took me out into the country, away from all towns and villages. As I approached the building that was my destination, I first came upon this 1994 covered bridge that crossed Cedar Creek. This “new” bridge had replaced a “truss” bridge that had been built in 1935. That 1935 “truss” bridge had, in turn, replaced the original covered bridge that had been built here some time in the 1800’s.

This new bridge sure was pretty with all the trees in the area and with Cedar Creek burbling and bubbling along beneath it.

I drove across the bridge and turned into a small parking lot right in front of the old 1875 Cedar Creek Grist Mill, my destination.

This grist mill is still mostly original (including most of the wood and all of the mill works), and it still works! It’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places. That link will take you to this specific building’s record. Go there to read really interesting details about the place, but maybe browse through the photos below first to get a feel for it, then come back up to this link and enjoy the info from the National Register.

Before we talk about the mill and how it works, let’s talk about “grist” … what is “grist” anyway?

Here’s what I learned. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. The word grist is derived from the verb grind. Grist can be ground into meal or flour, depending on how coarsely it is ground (meal is coarse, flour is fine). On the other hand, maize that has been ground is called grits when it is coarse, and corn meal when it is finely ground. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, buckwheat, peas, beans, and many other grains are “grist” before they are ground and processed into flour. The excellent thing about getting flour or meal directly from an old grist mill like this one (or grinding it at home yourself) is that there is no chemical processing of the flour and no additives or fillers in the flour that’s produced.

So that’s what “grist” is. Now let’s visit this old mill and find out how the mill works.

I took the photo below of the mill from across the creek. The photo shows Cedar Creek at the bottom of the photo. It shows water falling downward from just outside the right side of the building, into the creek. That water arrived there (next to the building) from upstream via a long “flume” but the water was being prevented from entering the mill and so it simply fell back into the creek before entering the building.

But, Ann, this is a water-driven mill, so where is the water wheel?!

Well, take a look at this … it’s underneath the building! It’s a vertical wheel (photos above and below) that spins horizontally, where most water wheels that we’re used to spin vertically. It is a large vertical, double-walled, black, wooden tube. It houses a water turbine (nope, not a water wheel, but a water turbine). When water from the flume is allowed to enter the building, the water is directed to fall inside the very top of that tube. The speed and force and weight of the falling water inside that tube then turns a turbine at the bottom of the large black tube, and the turbine turns a large, long shaft that then runs a whole mess of belts and pulleys up inside this building that then eventually run the actual machine that grinds the grist into flour. And, when all this is happening, then the excess water exits at the bottom of that large, black tube and returns to the creek right down there.

 

The photo below is of Cedar Creek upstream from the mill.

This photo (below) is of the wooden flume as it runs next to Cedar Creek. The flume goes back through the woods about 650 feet to a point where it’s level with the creek and so takes some of the water from the creek and then delivers that water to the mill using simple gravity.

 

Obviously, there’s a “door” in the flume that directs water … either keeps it outside the building so it falls back to the creek, or it allows the water to come into the building and then into that tube (or “pen stock”) in order to turn the turbine.

On one wall inside the building was this image (below) … a very good description of how this system works. The “throttle wheel” is operated by a person who stands right there by it, and it controls how fast the turbine spins, thereby controlling how fast all of the grinding mill machinery spins. It’s all done using the force of water … it uses no electricity or other energy.

 

The following photos show the inside of the grist mill. The first photo below was taken looking straight down at that tall, black turbine. I’m standing inside the building directly above that tall, black, huge “pen stock” and the turbine that’s inside it. That grated hole in the floor is there so the turbine can be monitored from inside the building.

The belt in the photo below is the Buhr Mill belt and is driven directly by the turbine shaft.

And then there were lots of other belts that drove other things inside the building, including a small electric generator that then produced 6V electricity. When I first saw the generator, I thought it maybe was used to provide power to help turn the grist mill, but no, it’s the opposite. The grist mill turbine and shaft actually drive the generator. I was told that this small (very small) generator was not the original one … this one had a date stamped on the side of the generator … 1954 … and this was the “new” generator! As mentioned, it was driven by the turbine shaft and it provided electricity to the lights in the building. You can’t see the generator in the photos or videos below, I’m sorry to say. It was located up in the rafters above the far wall in the first video below, and it is driven by the shaft that has large red wheels on it.

 

 

 

 

The photo below is of the hopper where the “grist” is put. The Buhr Mill belt jiggles the hopper so the grist falls down into the mill below, while the Buhr Mill belt also turns the mill to produce flour.

And … since you just cannot get a real sense of this without sound, here are three videos I took below. Wish I could share the smell of the place with you too … the wood, the oil on the machinery, the smell of the grain and the fresh flour. The smell was dusty and warm and rich and musty and even spicy, all at the same time.

The video below shows a fellow using the throttle wheel to control the speed of the turbine and shaft. The video goes on to show the route taken by all of the belts and pulleys … one set near the ceiling which runs a number of things including an exhaust fan … then the video goes back to the turbine shaft and shows the Buhr Mill belt that drives the mill that sits under the green hopper that holds the grist that arrived here by wagon that was pulled by a horse that came from the farm that houses the barn that Jack built … well, you get the drift. 🙂

This next video (below) shows the grist (before it’s ground) coming out the bottom of the green hopper and being directed into the machinery that grinds the grist into flour.

And this third and last video (below) shows the hopper again, from another angle, and shows the flour coming out of the bottom of the mill. Another fellow (they are all volunteers and local folks and really nice guys) gathers the freshly-milled flour, puts it in a paper sack, and gives it to any visitors who wish it.

One last detail I wanted to share with you folks is about the wooden building. I mentioned early on in this post that the wood is mostly original. The photo below shows the difference between the original wood (the main body of the building) and the new wood (the shed to the left). Some parts of the supporting timbers below the building have been replaced in this mill’s life, but the building itself and the machinery is just about completely original. It’s no replica … it’s the real deal.

For more information or to donate money to support the mill, to volunteer or visit or to plan an event here, visit this website … https://www.cedarcreekgristmill.org/index.php.

Later that afternoon, after that family with the two kids left the building, I hung around and chatted up the guys. There was one older fellow there with a lot of experience with this mill, and a few younger guys who loved the place and were learning. I didn’t tell them I was a retired truck mechanic, I simply started looking at the machinery in detail (including that old generator), and then I asked one question, then another, and then another, and pretty soon they all realized I truly understood what I was looking at and the significance of machinery like that, especially since it was from the mid-1800s. Many parts of the machinery in this mill had been designed and fabricated by the original builder … you couldn’t just order up some widgets and wadgets from Home Depot back then. 🙂 Pretty soon they were all leading me around and jabbering away explaining everything to me without my needing to ask. I loved it. By the end of my visit here, I had made a bunch of new friends, taught the guys that women too understand and admire machinery like this, and I left a nice-sized donation in the little box by the door.

What a great world this is! Isn’t it? 🙂 I sure learned a lot.