Most people just called me “Miller”.
Though that wasn’t my given name, I took it for my own.
For many years, from as early as when I could hold a broom to sweep the grain on the floors of the mills, to when I left this quiet valley, I worked and learned most everything one needed to run a mill.
It was a good life, hard work in the beautiful mountains, along the streams and creeks.
I didn’t realize how long I have been away from this area. So much has changed.
I have come back to rediscover my roots and uncover the old and welcome the new.
Waypoint: N35 41.288, W082 34.242
So we start at the Biffle/Coleman Gristmill. Adam Biffle came from Germany in the early 1700’s and built what is the oldest mill site in the valley and stayed in operation for the longest time.
It was also used as a sawmill.
What a wonderful setting it was, long ago.
I see they have kept the wheel, or what is left of it, and the remnants of the foundation and fittings.
A= the # of spokes of the wheel in the ground, plus the # of upright rods with nuts on the end to the right of the wheel shaft nearest the water.
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Waypoint: N35 41.101, W082 33.837
Jim Wright built the Reems Creek Milling Company in 1914. He operated it for nearly 36 years. It used the milldam and race from the Reems Creek Woolen Mills just a few yards away.
This became a thriving little community. There were many machines and stones running in this gristmill, that I either helped move, adjust or replace.
The sounds coming out of here have changed over the years, from the gristmill to a shop for woodworking. I see it has been a place to enjoy some home cooking too!
B= # of the highest small windows on the side of the building with the sign, minus # of wheels standing in the ground near the front of the building.
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Waypoint: N35 41.442, W082 31.409
Near this spot in the late 1820’s, Robert Williamson built what was the second water-powered sawmill in the valley.
As a boy, I was thrilled to go and watch the logs being hauled in to the mill and cut up.
Beams and boards and lots of sawdust!
C= # of “Total number of" smiles” you see on one of the buildings in the distance...PLUS 2.
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Waypoint: N35 41.627, W082 31.091
General Robert Brank Vance wrote to Senator Zebulon Vance in 1880:
I call to mind the spot where we were born
The apple trees, the fields of standing corn
The mountain peaks bathed in the glowing morn
The quiet graveyard on the big red hill
Above the meadow, and the old corn mill
Where the majestic oak is standing still.
With a heavy heart I walk in to this cemetery. Many friends and many people I worked for over the years lie here.
Mr. Brank was the tycoon in these parts as he had his hand in his own gristmill per his name, and a partner or investor in others.
I see some of his millers, Bowen, Penland amidst the stones.
Robert Brank's marker is a darker colored medium size obelisk.
D= Number of letters in his daughter Sylthia Brank's middle name.
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So many of the wonderful mills in this, the “wheat belt” of the mid-south, have indeed gone by the wayside, or have been forgotten or peer out from the rubble.
When you come across some piles of rocks near a stream or creek on your wanderings, stop and ponder what this may have been.
I hear there is a new mill in the area, grinding old heirloom wheat.
I will have to look into this and see what they are up to.
-“Miller”
You now have the coordinates to yet another forgotten milestone of a mill, the Beech Community Gristmill…
Here is a link to the gristmills of the past: https://www.history-at-hand.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Mills-on-Reems-Creek-v7-12x16.pdf
Checksum: A+B+C+D= XY; X+Y=5
You can also check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Terrain could be 2 or a little more if there has been a lot of rain.