Sciple's Water Mill Traditional Cache
Hidden : 2/18/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Related Web Page

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

Sciple's Water Mill

When the old ways have endured and are just as popular as they have always been, you have to admit something is going on. Take for instance Sciples Water Mill where they make flour and meal the old way, and are as busy as ever. This is the way it’s been done up on Tiger Creek in Kemper County for over 200 years now. The whole grain, wheat or corn goes in the hopper above the grinding wheel, the belt is tightened allowing the water power to get to the stones, and meal or flour comes out the other side. Edward Sciple is the current proprietor of Sciples Water Mill. He's the next in the generations to run it - fourth generation in his family. "The mill was built in 1790. There was a Dr. Hunley come here from South Carolina and built it. Four other families owned it before the Sciples bought it around 1830 to 1850 somewhere right in that period," said Edward. But when you can go to the store and buy meal and flour, why would anybody want to go to the trouble of growing their own crop and then taking it to be milled at the end of the season nowadays? Well, all meal is not created equal. "There's a lot of difference in the way its ground. This is ground with stones – stone ground. And it’s floating rocks they call it. It’s just the weight of the rocks that does the grinding. There's is made with steel rollers. As the corn passes between the rollers it just mashes it a little smaller until it gets on out the end. Where mine is rolled down to its size. And I use the whole grain and they don't. So, I don't know, there's a lot of difference in it," Edward said. They say the first great invention was the wheel. But as soon as it hit ground it started carrying us farther and farther away from our roots. But here are wheels knitting us to nature and honesty and to the time when people survived by what they grew. And it’s that kind of tradition that has kept places like Sciples Mill viable. And it’s that tradition Edward Sciple grinds out, literally, every day.
By Walt Grayson

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



Advertising with Us