Mill series 1 of 14 - read GC8Y7N5 1st
BEAVER MILL
On your way to and from here, keep an eye on the river, see how many dams you can find. There were many that supported the mills along here. Some have been removed and others are filled in with runoff so they are no longer deep and holding the water once needed to run the mills. When you get to this location be sure to go past the north end of the building where an old dam in bad disrepair still stands next to the entrance road to Natural Bridge State Park. Once there stand near the edge at the top of the dam and you can see the old concrete raceway entrance under the road that once supplied the water to the mill. That also is now full of rocks and dirt. I believe the device in the middle of the road was a control valve.
Beaver Mill
In 1832 Lorenzo Rice and George Bly formed the “Rice and Bly” partnership and leased the basement floor of a nearby existing mill in order to produce their own cotton machinery. At that time they also purchased this area of 26 acres, including all the water power, for $500. In 1833 they built a 3 storey stone mill measuring 40'x80' and installed 20 looms for making cotton cloth. In the mid 1835 and again in 1845, 2 more partners joined the company which was then renamed to “Rice, Bly & Co.”. Up to this point the company had been making and purchasing additional looms for a total of 60. In 1845 a 50' addition was added along with 30 more looms and a store. In 1849 George Bly retired selling his holdings to his partner Mr Rice, at which time the name changed again to “L. Rice & Co”. In 1850 the entire mill burned for a total loss that the insurance did not fully cover. It was sold to Henry Wells, Rodman Wells, and Shubael Brayton, renamed “Wells, Brayton, & Co” and a new 4 storey 102'x40' mill was built to manufacture Cashimere and Satinets ( satin like cloth made from cotton ). In 1862 the name changed once again to “ S.W. Brayton & Co” when the Well's sold their holdings to Shubael Brayton and S. Johnson. In 1870 another fire destroyed everything inside the mill. This time S Brayton purchased his partners holdings, and again renamed, this time to “S.W.Brayton” and he rebuilt and enlarged the mill. One year later the mill, water rights, and store was sold and, you guessed it, renamed again to “Gallup, Houghton & Smith” for the new partners W. Gallup, A. Houghton, and A Smith. In 1877 another buyout and it became known as “Gallup & Houghton” at which time it was producing 1,500 pieces of cloth a week by 150 employees running 210 looms. I havent found much on it in the next 23 years until 1900 at which time it was part of the Arnold Print works with 25,000 spindles. APW used this cloth in their print mills which is now Mass MoCA. I Assume it was during that time that the building was greatly expanded to what you see in the picture. In 1929 APW sold the property to Sprague Electric and in 1930 Sprague moved some of its operations from Quincy MA to this mill. By 1977 Sprague had sold The Beaver Mill to Hoosuck Community Resources Corp. Since then it has had various uses such as The Dark Ride Project, Robotic Arts Project, storage, vendors, and more. A=174
Thanks to the North Adams Historical society for providing information and photos
To solve for this Puzzle:
Final Coords E= On the 1st floor, the number of Green boarded up windows and doors BETWEEN the small loading dock( left) and "The Dark Ride" entrance (right)
N 42° 42.A W 073° 05.3E6