• « Previous Entries

Category

Mills

• 11.27.07
  Water wheels and bicycle wheels
  Branch County MI, Mills (4)

  This is some of what's left of the Blackhawk mill on the Coldwater River a couple of miles outside of Coldwater, Michigan. There used to be a public road that crossed the river where the dam was, but it has reverted to private ownership. The photo was taken in 1999. It has been several years since I rode there, so I don't know what it looks like now. The first Blackhawk mill was called the Pocahontas Mills. But it seems to have had its name changed soon after the Black Hawk war. There is some old stonework on the site, ...
  
  
• 11.20.07
  Bring back the water wheel
  Black Hawk war zone tour - 2004, Illinois, Mills (1)

  This photo is from a two-week ride in September 2004. Shabbona Park is on Indian Creek, near Earlville, Illinois. It's now a place where one can sit at a picnic table to make dinner while watching cows graze near the edge of the creek, or look at the gravestones commemorating those who were killed here in 1832 in the "Indian Creek massacre." What happened here gave the United States a pretext to do what it was going to do anyway to the Potawatomi people of Indiana and Michigan. I'm still reading Terry Reynolds' book about the history ...
  
  
• 11.12.07
  Water and Fire
  Kalamazoo County MI, Mills (1)

  This is the road past Scott's Mill Park in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. I often ride within a half mile or so of the park on my way to points to the south or southwest in Indiana or elsewhere. This was a cold day in March 2003 2004 that would have required chemical toewarmers, if I had known about such things back then. My wife was home watching the MSU Spartans men's basketball team on TV. Despite what I've said elsewhere about my intense dislike of TV, I like to watch these games with her. But not at the expense of ...
  
  
• 10.20.07
  Millstone
  Mills, Parke County IN (0)

  This millstone was pulled out of Raccoon Creek by a backhoe last year. The miller told me about it on my first ride to Bridgeton, in September 2006. Arsonists had burned the covered bridge down, and as I understand it, a backhoe operator found it when doing some cleanup work in the creek afterwards. Or perhaps it was during construction of the replacement bridge. It is not obvious that it's a millstone, and it's not the usual type of millstone. It doesn't have a hole in the center for an axle. It might ...
  
  
• 10.19.07
  Bridgeton Mill
  Mills, Parke County IN (1)

  The stop at Pipeline road was towards the end of my Monday ride (October 8). At the beginning I got mixed up on my way out of Rockville, and ended up at a tourist place known as Billie Creek. It has one of Parke County's many covered bridges. But since I was here, I stopped to get a photo before heading back towards Rockville. While doing so, a van with an older couple pulled up. Well, maybe not much older than me. They wanted to know if there were any more bridges than ...
  
  

• « Previous Entries