Restoration and childhood memories

On the way to Freedom, this sign didn't include Unity
Photo: Google images

  Down in Freedom work is underway to restore a Grist Mill.  At on time I think almost every town in Maine had a mill for grinding grain.  The grain was used for humans to cook with and for animal feed for cows, horses and chickens.  At one time the mill in Skowhegan (as an example) ground enough locally grown wheat to feed all of Somerset County.  That mill was recently replaced.
  Water from streams and rivers supplied the power for these mills, the water driven turbines, or wheels, drove the pulley and belt system the powered the tools, or grinding wheels.

The pulley and belt system in the Freedom Mill, last used for wood turning.
Photo: Gabor Degre, Bangor Daily News

The mill in my home town of Lebanon with the dam removed.
The narrow space in the concrete was the penstock which
pushed water to the wheel for power.
Photo: www.knights.hls-inc.net
 

When I was young the dam was intact and we fished in the summer and did a lot of ice skating in the winter.  Good memories of this place.