Bull Pen Mill Restoration

Recently restored, Bull Pen Mill is ready to once again grind corn for the Pleasant Grove Community.

The Chattooga Conservancy applauds this project to preserve sensitive property in the Chattooga River watershed, while also promoting local cultural heritage.

Background

Betsy Rivard

I never intended to own a mill, or even to buy property. But on the way back from a trip to the Iron Bridge that crosses the Chattooga River, we stopped at a spot on Bull Pen Road and hiked through a tunnel of huge rhododendrons to a rustic cabin overlooking a 35 foot waterfall on Fowler Creek, a tributary to the Chattooga. The creek was crystal clear and at the bottom of the waterfall was a picturesque gristmill. I learned that the property was for sale, and it was bordered on two sides by the Nantahala National Forest. Over the next year I visited the mill and cabin, and wanted to preserve that gorgeous, pristine spot. I was concerned that development in the area would have terrible repercussions on the health of the Chattooga River and believed that as a landowner, I could help prevent the degradation of this precious area. One day my neighbor called saying that the owner was eager to sell, and would take half the price! The cabin was infested with powder-post beetles and the gristmill roof was bad; the waterwheel’s buckets were rusting out and the underpinnings of the mill were starting to rot. In spite of the drawbacks, I decided to buy. I found out a little about the cabin and mill’s history from Mary Cole, who lived across the creek from the cabin.

The exact history of the mill is not known, but it is thought to date from the early 1800’s. The earliest known miller there was Wack McCall who ground corn for the neighboring Pleasant Grove Community in the 1880’s. The falls are officially named Morgan’s Shoals, and there is evidence the mill was once owned by a man named Morgan. The original waterwheel was a horizontal wooden tub wheel, which was replaced with a wooden overshot wheel (vertical). In the 1940’s, the property was bought by Dr. James Fancher. After building the cabin in 1946, he renovated the mill, installing a 17-foot metal overshot wheel and flume line. A portion of the enormous amount of water in Fowler Creek is channeled toward the flume by a submerged log dam. A penstock (floodgate) was installed at the mouth of the flume that can be opened or closed at will.

Mary and her late husband, Forrest Cole, discovered the gristmill and cabin in the early 1970’s and with permission from the owners, renovated the mill. With the help of interested neighbors, Forrest rebuilt the millhouse surrounding the millstones. He was careful to leave the millstones in place, feeling this would give historical accuracy to the renovation. Some of the timbers underpinning the millhouse were replaced, and others were added for stability. Like the first builders of the mill, Forrest used locust wood. After reworking the gears and sharpening the stones, Forrest and his friends ground corn for the Pleasant Grove neighbors once again.

Mary was happy I bought the mill and hoped I could improve its stability. She feared the mill might just collapse during a storm. Later a tree fell that grazed the side of the millhouse and wheel, and I felt compelled to get the renovation underway. I found an engineer and professional millwright named John Lovett, who runs Falls Mill in Belvedere, Tennessee. My recently retired friend, Bruce Kitchell, was also eager to oversee the renovation of Bull Pen Mill. I hoped to preserve the mill, enabling it to grind corn again and hopefully produce some hydro-power. The waterwheel restoration began in July 2001, and Bruce’s description of the project follows.

Restoration

Bruce Kitchell
Recently restored, Bull Pen Mill is ready to once again grind corn for the Pleasant Grove Community.

The initial phase of restoring the Bull Pen Mill involved determining what work was needed, and how it could be done to have minimal impact on the environment around the waterwheel and mill house. We were fortunate to find Robert Hubbs, founder of the Water Wheel Factory in Franklin, NC, and John Lovett of Falls Mill in Belvedere, TN to assist and guide us in this endeavor. The first challenge was to develop a system for delivering material to the wheel site which is more than 50 feet below the driveway to the cabin. To solve this problem, Hubbs installed a 100 foot long steel aerial cable suspended between trees at the top and bottom of the run. A trolley mechanism was hung from the steel cable, carrying a wooden box into which material could be loaded. A platform and ramp was constructed to allow easy access to all sides of the wheel. The buckets and periphery of the wheel were cut into manageable sections and burned off the radial angle-iron spokes, and two damaged spokes were also cut off. The remainder of the waterwheel frame, axle and spokes were sandblasted and wire-brushed. The area directly beneath and around the frame was covered with plastic sheeting to catch scale, paint chips and sand, thus minimizing the impact on the area surrounding the wheel.

After much discussion, the decision was made to replace all the existing mill house post and beam supports with new locust posts and beams. Fred Strong, a local building contractor with more than 25 years experience, undertook this phase of the restoration, and he also built the “balcony,” a walkway outside the mill house that supports the pinion shaft and drum that is connected to the wheel. The old differential used for power generation was retired permanently.

The fabrication of the 12 bucket segments at the factory was now complete and ready for delivery and installation. A CAD (computer aided drafting) system was used to design the bucket segments, and the segments were assembled and welded by hand. The segments were lowered by the aerial cable to the wheel site. Each segment was bolted to the radial spokes and the wheel was then rotated using a come-along so that the next segment could be inserted and bolted to the radials and the previous segment. Rubber gaskets were inserted between each segment to contain the water spill.

It was now time for millwright, John Lovett, to perform his centuries old craft. The first step was to sharpen the stones. This involved lifting the 1,000 pound-plus top “running” stone and turning it over to expose the cutting surface. Once settled on the floor of the millhouse, the top stone was sharpened using a hand held pick. The process involved chipping away small amounts of stone in such a way as to recreate the radial furrows that perform the grinding function, while at the same time maintaining an absolutely flat surface. This process took about one day for each stone. After both surfaces had been sharpened, the top stone was carefully lifted back into its original position.

Then we began work on the drive train connection, which was broken into three sections. First, the 3’ horizontal shaft with a 3” pinion gear on one end and a 19” belt drum on the other end. This was mounted on the balcony and engaged a 24” ring gear attached to the waterwheel. Second, the vertical shaft with a 19” belt drum on the lower end and a square, pointed upper end that engaged the yoke bar, which supported the upper stone. The lower end of the shaft rested in a bronze bearing that was mounted on the “bridge-tree.” The “bridge-tree” is a horizontal beam that is attached to a pivot point on one end and has a vertical chain connected at the other end. This allows the mill operator to raise and lower the top stone by means of a screw mechanism in the mill house. Lastly, there is a 6” wide leather belt with a quarter twist, to connect the horizontal and vertical drums.

The upper-end of the vertical shaft was held in place by a wooden bearing. A new 8” diameter bearing, constructed from laminated pieces of hard maple, was inserted in a tapered opening in the stationary bottom stone. Once the vertical shaft was ready, the horizontal shaft was installed on the balcony. The alignment of the drums was crucial for proper belt tracking. At this point we were ready to turn the stones by means of water flowing over the wheel, and John Lovett returned to his shop in Tennessee to build the accessories needed for the milling operation. These included a new “hoop” that surrounded the rotating upper stone, a “hopper” that sat on top of the “hoop” and held the grain before grinding, and a sifting “bin” that separated the ground material as it exited the grinding stone according to size. The hopper was “bumped” by a cam-like rod called the “damsel” that was driven off the top of the vertical shaft.

The bumping action caused the hopper to fed the grain smoothly into the center hole of the top stone for grinding. The sifting “bin” was driven by a small belt that came up through the millhouse floor. The belt was guided by a complex arrangement of small pulleys and received its power from a wooden drive wheel attached to the vertical shaft. The final task was to bring all the individual pieces into harmonious operation. The first and most important of these operations was to balance the running stone. This had been done by adding flattened pieces of lead to the top of the stone until it rotated smoothly without dipping. Numerous adjustments were made on the guide roller to ensure that the belt would track properly and not slip off. Finally, the remaining and most important ingredient was to pour 50 pounds of dried corm into the hopper and start the stone a-turnin’.

Thousands of water wheels were constructed on streams of every size throughout America by farmers, millers, sawyers and mine operators. The ability to grind corn into meal allowed pioneers to settle and build lives in new frontiers. Preserving these mills not only forges a valuable link to our nation’s past, it also provides a valuable tool for use today.