REEL
REFRESHING
The Old Road Series - Plate XI |
Release
Date: March 1983
Edition Size: 1000 S/N
Issue Price: $35.00
Print Size: 17 x 22
Secondary Market
Value
|
If
only old mills could talk!
Thousands
of mills were buil in America during the past three
hundred years, and thousands have fallen victim to the
ravages of time, neglect and vandals. The "Cawker
Biennial Flour Director" published in an 1886 issue
of "The American Miller" listed 16,856 mills
in the United States. Most have not been restored. Most
have not become souvenir shops or tourist attractions.
Most are simply falling down and disappearing, or long
gone.
Inspiration
for REEL REFRESHING is Blackiston Mill which
once spanned Silver Creek between Floyd and Clark Counties
in southern Indiana. In it's early days, between 1870
and 1900 a footbridge spanned the dam giving access
to the picnic area on the other side. Near the turn
of the century an iron bridge was erected immediately
to the left of the Mill, but collapsed under the weight
of a concrete truck in 1963.
Originally,
and as late as the flood of 1937, the open space between
the floor joists down to the horizontal beam was enclosed
with vertical planking. The wheel was enclosed and the
millrace was behind the wall at right. In the early
1900s the Mill became an outstanding recreation locale
with fishing, swimming and boat rentals. By World War
II the Mill was closed and all gears and metal parts
donated as scrap to the war effort.
REEL
REFRESHING, featuring a classic 7-Up sign and a
lone fisherman, is a reflection of how the Mill look
in 1957 when I photographed it from under the old iron
bridge. Following a roof collapse, the Mill was demolished
about 1990.
___________________________________
RAY
DAY
ray@rayday.com
|