The Mill
The cave mills at Lost River Cave and the Louisville-Nashville Turnpike which passed over the cave are connections to the 19th century commercial and agricultural development of Warren County. There are many conflicting reports on the construction of the first mill at Lost River Cave. Some undocumented 20th century reports state that it was built in 1792 as a corn and saw mill. Other accounts place the construction of the “first flour mill in Warren County” much later. There seems to have been several mills with different operators and production goals throughout the 19th century. The first of these structures sat inside the cave while later millers built their operations on top of the arched entrance to the cavern.
There is definitely enough factual documentation to show that the mill was in operation by 1823 and continued until at least 1847 when it was maintained as a grist mill and wool carding machine by a Mr. Shanks. This mill was built directly in the stream under the rock arch of the cave entrance.
" water confined just above a wall of masonry being built across with narrow gates or issues for the water to pass through."
-Samuel Hibbs, 8th Kansas Infantry camped at Lost River in 1862
In the mid-1870s, John L. Row built a stone dam in the stream near the cave entrance, drilled through the 42 feet of bedrock in the arched ceiling of the cave entrance and constructed a three-story high mill above the cave. A shaft ran from the mill to an "undershot wheel" in the dam raceway. He operated his mill as a distillery and flour mill until 1889 when it was purchased by James Skaggs.
The last mill at Lost River, owned by Robert Crump, was destroyed by fire in 1915. A history of industry which lasted over a century ended with the burning of the old mill. Today, the hole John Row drilled in the cave ceiling, a reconstructed dam from the night club era and a large waterwheel at the entrance to the park are used by interpreters to explain the importance of economic and industrial development for early owners of the cave and valley.
Read more about this topic: Lost River Cave
Famous quotes containing the word mill:
“The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
“—First a shiver, and then a thrill,
Then something decidedly like a spill,—
And the parson was sitting up on a rock,
At half-past nine by the meet’n’-house clock,—
Just the hour of the Earthquake shock!
MWhat do you think the parson found,
When he got up and stared around?
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
As if it had been to the mill and ground!”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)