Sciple's Mill Grinding Stone Work

You guys may remember my posts in the past showing Sciples Mill, North of Dekalb, MS. The Sciple's Mill has been in continuous operation since 1790 and is the oldest water powered grain grinding mill in the USA.





This is a photo of the grinder in the mill. It consists of two horizontal grinding stones, the top one suspended over over the base stone. As the top stone rotates, the grain is ground between the two stones to make stone ground flour, corn meal, grits, etc.



The two grinding stones are contained within this wooden casing.



The guys at Sciple's recently pulled the top stone and sharpened both it and the bottom stone (recut the grooves in the faces of the stones. The following are Facebook videos and I apologize for that. They show the guys at Sciples positioning the 1600 pound top stone and installing it back into place. It is done by hand, with a screw winch to raise and lower the stone. As amazing as it sounds, this is the way it has been done every time the stone has been moved and put back into place for 233 years.

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Stuff like this fascinates me and I thought you might like to see a little of it.