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(Narrator) In a cultural sense, these are the amniotic waters of the Hocking River and this is the story of the rebirth of a symbol of America's entrepreneurial heritage. It's a part of who we are as a community, a reflection of the spirit of free enterprise in pioneer America, and a tribute to the mechanical ingenuity of men determined to succeed. For most of its nearly 200-year history, it's been known as Rock Mill. (Stephen J Parker) The original mill was built in 1799. That would have been one of the really early mills in Ohio,but this one was built in 1824, so it's, uh, it's old, but, uh, we're very fortunate we're able to restore it." (Bruce Babcock's voice) "To situate this mill on the edge of this cliff the way it is and to have everything to fall in place, uh, the way it did is, is, is, is just amazing to me!" (Jan Elzy's voice) "The biggest thing that we have going for us and why we can restore this mill is that we still have our water source available. Many mills that were built, over 3,000 mills built in the United States, and most of those have lost their capability to be restored because they no longer have the water supply. We have our water supply only 35 feet away from us." (Joseph Steiger) "We're actually in an area that was eroded out by the stream which is the Hocking River. Most of this erosion occurred much more recently, just after the last glaciation. They had a tremendous amount of melt water from that glacier that found a break through the rocks and then began to form a stream channel, and as that stream flowed it actually broke away rock and formed this gorge." (Narrator) It's that exact erosional feature which will make its way into Native American culture and lore. Several local tribes described this point on the river as resembling a bottleneck, or the neck of a gourd. To the frontiersmen it sounded like hockhocking, today's Hocking River. And later, when European settlers began frequenting this spot, they also took note. (Joseph Steiger) "It was very obvious that, in fact the earliest land surveyors were surveying the township line between Greenfield and Bloom township and it comes right within a hundred feet or so of this waterfalls and they even made a special note in their records that said here's an ideal place for a watermill. And that was back in 1800. So, and I'm sure right shortly after that this is so unique there's other other places you could put a mill but they're nothing like this." (Narrator) The source of these falls are a mere six miles north. These marshy farm fields in central Ohio combine to form the infant headwaters of the Hocking River. From here the collective runoff of a watershed estimated at over 4,000 acres begins a 100-mile-long, 450-foot descent to the Ohio River. (background music begins playing) (music continues) Weakened by time, weather, and neglect, Rock Mill was purchased in 1991 by Robert Stebelton and his wife, Rita. The local couple began a personal effort to shore up the deteriorating six-story structure. In December of 2003, the Stebeltons donated Rock Mill to the Fairfield County Parks. Restoration began two years later. (Jan Elzy) "In the early days, the mill was leaning into the gorge and leaning towards the covered bridge. And so the mill needed to be, the building itself needed to be stabilized. Bob Stebelton did an awful lot of work in stabilizing that and had he not done the work that he did prior to donating it to the Parks, I'm not sure the mill would have survived." (Ed Shaw) First time i was ever in the building, we went in and you could stand there and you could look up and you could see the bottom of the roof! And, there was there was, uh, chains and steel beams and cables just running every which way in the building just to hold the thing up! (Narrator) The gift was the beginning of what will become an over decade-long journey to save one of Ohio's most culturally significant structures. (Bruce Babcock) "But not did they just build a building, they built the largest water-powered gristmill in the state! I mean in 1824, I, I guess there were probably some wagon roads through here but not a lot of them. There couldn't have been you know a, ha ha, a thousand acres of wheat or, or grain in the county. I don't know that... but this is a huge building! A multi-story building with a huge waterwheel. This is just a tremendous piece of machinery! And, apparently uh, it handled...there's a lot more to this than just Fairfield County." (Jan Elzy) When this mill was built, there were, were... the two closest gristmills were either in Maysville, Kentucky or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That was a two-week trip, round-trip, and you had to cross the Ohio River twice, going, once going and once coming, no matter which one of the mills you went to. And it would... if this mill had not been built, I think it would have been a number of years delay before agriculture was developed in this area. Uh, it was just too difficult to get the, the grain milled. But, once this mill was built, farming in in this area took off immediately. When the mill was built, and the reason it's built so large is that they did not feel there was enough grain grown in the area to justify a gristmill operating 365 days a year. So, they were going to card wool and they were going to make blankets in the spring and the summer when they weren't grinding grain. But the development of farms in the area once the mill was built was so prolific that the one side of it was never installed. This was so key into... getting agriculture into this area of Ohio. And with the Canal being built and the National Road not that far away, it gave people in this area then an opportunity to get their farm goods to Cincinnati, to Pittsburgh, to other places." (Narrator) Certified Timber Framer, Rick Kotoff, described what he thought when he first saw the mill. (Rick Kotoff) "'There's a lot of work here', that was my overall thought! Uh, it just... almost, you just wonder, 'Where would you start?' 'Where would you begin?' But, what's nice is, you do... you hit one area and you see the progress you're making there, and then it looks like, 'Well, this is doable.'" (Narrator) That can-do attitude was pervasive among amateurs and professionals alike. All seemingly drawn to the belief that cultural preservation makes us all better people. Former volunteer parks commissioner, Tom Tobin lost a huge white oak tree to the ravages of hurricane Ike in September of 2008 and offered the timber to the Parks. While part-time sawyer, Steve Gorby, donated his time and his portable sawmill. (Steve Gorby) "We had a couple logs donated for the restoration of Rock Mill and help the project and do my part. I've been part of the community my whole life and it's just, uh... The mill and the bridge - it's part of everybody's life if you lived around here. And so, being able to do something to to helping the restoration just real gratifying." (Narrator) once it was decided that the mill was a candidate for preservation, work began on a plan of exactly what could be accomplished. (Jan Elzy) It was in 2005, we had no money, very few volunteers, but there was a core of people who decided this was worth saving." (Narrator) it was a mosaic of everyday citizens who realized the treasure that lay hidden on this seemingly magical spot at the upper falls of the Hocking River. For the restoration to be a success as an educational resource, authenticity had to be a guiding force of the mission. Shaw & Holter Construction of Lancaster was chosen for their expertise in historic restoration of barns and covered bridges. The early work involved stabilizing the building. (Ed Shaw) "We went and started on foundation repair, uh, just, where some of the posts had settled, we'd pour some concrete, jack the, uh, the building up, and set it back on the foundation. And that was how how we, uh, started on it. And then one thing led to another." (Narrator) The skeleton, or superstructure, of the mill would have to be deemed solid and safe before some extended work could continue. Once again staying true to the mission of authenticity, the corrugated metal skin of the exterior walls were replaced by timber siding. Work crews custom cut, trimmed, and nailed each course of white oak, plank by plank. (Rick Kotoff) "On a building like this you can nail things in, but it doesn't look original. You can tell because this building originally wasn't nailed when it was put together. It was mortise, tenon, doweled. So, that's how we're putting everything back together." (Narrator) Chief among the construction methods originally used in Rock Mill is mortise and tenon, a sturdy timber- joining system that dates to shipbuilding around 2,500 BC. This method locks together two separate pieces of timber into one unifying joint which becomes stronger over time. (Rick Kotoff) The only place we drive nails is where they drove nails. They nailed the floor, they nailed some of the joists. Actually, we didn't nail any of the joists in place at all, they're actually doweled, as well." (Narrator) Built when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were still alive, this restoration of Rock Mill has revealed some historic construction artifacts, like hand-forged nails. These were typically made one at a time by a blacksmith or farrier. (Rick Kotoff) "These are all cut nails. This one here has got some marks on it that makes it look like it might even be one of the old forged nails. And we've removed some larger ones. You could see where they were blacksmith sledged out. But they're pretty good- sized nails. These are some of the original pins that was put when the structure was built." (Narrator) Part of the early reinforcement of the mill included steel plates, bolted to hand-hewn beams to strengthen critical stress and load-bearing sections. In some cases, entire portions of the original rotted timbers were excised and replaced or 'married' to new timber of the same grade and size. In other places, old and new met in a lock-joint system. Any of the original wood timber already a part of a mill was reused wherever possible. Additional white oak used in the restoration from other sources was stacked and air dried on site or at nearby locations. (Jan Elzy) It was a major undertaking and I think that's why a lot of mills, these days, are not restored, because people, today, don't take the time. They don't want to spend the time to build the way it was originally built." (sound of saw cutting wood) (Rick Kotoff) What we do is, we evaluate each board to see whether it's damaged, rotten... what, what board we want to replace, and then when we do that then we see, okay, how do we remove that board so we don't damage either board next to it because it's all tongue-and-groove. And you don't want to break off either the tongue or the groove on either adjacent board or you ruin that board!" (Narrator) Conscientious restoration requires patience. (Rick Kotoff) "As my dad always said, 'The difference between a really good carpenter and a bad one is one that has patience.' And that's, basically, is all it requires, is just patience enough to know to measure well and how to cut right, and how to put it together. And motise and tenon work requires more patience than any other type of construction carpentry!" (Narrator) The skilled timber crew is fully aware of the one-of-a-kind nature of the Rock Mill project. The work is not straightforward and much is based on experienced judgment. The work crew recreated these pockets and stems using electric tools complemented by chisels and mallets. The original builders of Rock Mill had only hand tools and, most likely, pulleys, cables, and leather belts, powered by horses and oxen. As the labors of one year pass into the next, the seasons of the gorge change as they have for thousands of years, unimpressed by what we and our ancestors have strived to achieve in its midst. At times, winter would overtake the crew's exterior projects and lead to a variety of ways for keeping warm! For so many people, Rock Mill is a fortunately composed song whose lyrics appear on the brilliantly colored walls of the gorge and whose music is heard in the rush of the southbound Hocking River. While much of this work continued as funding allowed, citizen volunteers at the parks commission were touting the benefits of all the systems properties to the voters of Fairfield County. Presentations were made to answer the questions from the public about the mission of the county-wide parks organization and its proposed plans. Early efforts at the polls met with defeat. A number of times work on the 1824 mill had to be suspended. On April 24, 2009, the timber crew made preparations to shutter the nearly half-restored mill, cleaning up... packing up... and locking up... until additional dollars could be secured and the project continued. (Jan Elzy) "If this is the wheel and this is that independent gear that sat on there, and this would be that... wallower..." (Narrator) Two years earlier, volunteers Jan Elzy and Steve Parker met with millwright, Ben Hassett, one of only four full-time millwrights in the country. They sought to gauge his possible interest in working on the Rock Mill project. (Jan Elzy) "He said he really didn't think he had time, he was so busy. And I'm thinking, 'How many gristmills can be restored at this point that he's too busy to look at our mill?' But i asked him if he would just come and spend two days and just look at the mill tell us whether he felt it was worth being restored. He came, and we walked down into the gorge and looked back at the old mill, ready to fall into the gorge, and he saw the setting, the waterfall, the covered bridge, and he said, 'I think I can make room in my schedule for this restoration.'" (Narrator) That's when everything changed." (Ben Hassett) "The first thing i was just, kind of, struck by the gorge here! This, the siting of the mill, and the siting of the mill is the most important aspect, uh, of the mill. It governs what you can do at the mill and the overall size of it. So here they have this tremendous natural, uh, fall of the land, and the fall of the land gives you, dictates how much power you can generate at the site. It dictates the size of the wheel, in, in what you can run inside the mill. So, it's cited perfectly!" (Jan Elzy) "Even before we gave Ben the authorization to go ahead with this, he knew we were thinking about the the project. And he called me one evening and he said, 'Jan, I, I found the shaft! I found the log for the shaft. It's 28-feet long. It's longer than we need, we only need 22 feet, but it it does not have a knot in it! And, and, I've looked, and the grain at one end is exactly the same as the grain at the opposite end; it it will run true forever. We need to buy this log!' And I said, 'How much is it?' And he said, 'It's fifteen hundred dollars for the log.' And I said, 'Ben, we don't have any money but, if you think it's the log, you buy it, somehow, we will come up with fifteen hundred dollars.' So we had the log for the center shaft long before we ever had the money for the rest of, of all the the timber." (Narrator) Some of the puzzle pieces were coming together! In July of 2009 the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission announced approval of a $150,000 grant to continue the mill restoration and work crews returned to tackle the siding of the expansive north side facing the gorge. For the crews to be able to reach their work, a massive iron scaffold system had to be erected to afford the men access and ensure their safety. (Ed Shaw) "Just to prepare, we had, we had to pour concrete pads down in the bottom. And, and we had to pour them such that we'd be able to take them out at a later date and, and not do any damage to the existing, uh, rock, eh, which we did. And then we had to put shoring towers up. We built a a huge platform up at the level of the sandstone wall. And, then we we worked off of that. We'd fix the beams and the posts and everything as we went up and put the siding on it until we got to the top!" (Narrator) The Parks, meanwhile, had conducted 10 levy campaigns, since its founding, with each being turned down. Everyone knew that the dream of a county-wide park system could not be realized without a reliable funding mechanism supported by the people. Up to this point, the Fairfield County Commissioners had provided the only source of ongoing revenue, coming from its general fund, but that was about to change. (Steve Parker) "if you look at it from my perspective and understand that we've spent a million dollars over the last 10 years - kind of having a park system and, frankly, kind of not - it's time to move on. It's time to win. It's time to go forward in November with a tactically appropriate and legitimate winning campaign. And then,if we lose, the parks have to go." (Narrator) The statements re-energized levy proponents and campaign work began anew. Finally, in November of 2011, on the 11th try, the results were positive. The voters approved a 10-year, nearly 10 million dollar levy to sustain the parks. The victory allowed the mission to continue. Labor lay dormant for most of 2011 at the mill, but plans were being made now to schedule the fabrication of the waterwheel, some 26 feet in diameter, and the trestle, the structure which would support the massive whee. The trestle timbers arrived in May of 2012, to the specifications in size and number calculated by the restoration team. The timber crews now working off-site began their task of building the trestle, employing the mortise and tenon system they'd used at the mill. Accuracy continued to be of paramount importance at this point. Not only was the timber milled to exact tolerances, each beam had to be measured, marked, and cut precisely for a perfect fit in the foundation piers being set into the floor of the gorge 11 miles away, It's early on a mid-summer morning and time to actually assemble the trestle in the work yard. The preparations have gone well. These beams, some weighing 1,200 pounds each, are lifted and slowly, ever so slowly, guided into place. An experienced hand at the controls makes all the difference. This is the first time these timbers have been joined. It's slow but deliberate work. One week later, the trestle and the water box reservoir, also known as the forebay, are transported to the mill after negotiating through some early morning commuter traffic. A 210-ton crane prepares for nearly an hour to perform the spectacle of lowering the trestle and the forebay into the gorge just beneath the mill before a crowd of onlookers. It takes on the feel of a high wire act as the white oak timbers float into place. The dramatic dance which sets the stage for the entrance of the star of the show - the waterwheel! Everyone involved with the mill throughout its over decade-long restoration have been equally amazed at what was accomplished here nearly 200 years ago! (Jan Elzy) "When you look at the challenges of what would have been required to build a mill of this size up on top, 18 feet above the water, it's, it's just amazing that there was that kind of ingenuity, that kind of ability to put that together in any time frame let alone, we understand it was put together in less than two years. And to find white oak timber in the area that's this size. You're putting together the timber, it's still green, it's not dried. The center, beams are 12" x 14"; they weigh 125 pounds per lineal foot, in the white oak, and they're 38 feet long. To lift those you have to lift it higher, you had to have some means to lift it higher than the peak of the building. And the peak of the building sits about 100 feet above the gorge floor. So, it's putting the stones together, it's getting the timber, getting it cut, erecting the timber, putting the gearing together, all this was thought up and put together by, we think several millwrights. We don't think one person could have done all that in that period of time. But, uh, what a challenge and what a neat building to preservel" (Narrator) Lynchburg, Virginia is a busy town situated on the hills of the famed Blue Ridge Mountains, just above the historic James River. Here, on the floor of a small shop, a lean crew of young men under the expert guidance of millwright, Ben Hassett, begin to piece together the Rock Mill waterwheel. The wooden wheel is made up of precise, pre-cut sections. The styrofoam hub is used to line up the arms, or spokes, while the rim, also referred to as the shroud, of the giant wheel is laid out, joined, and tightened into place by ratchet belts. in the work yard the millwright planes over-sized wooden shims used to secure the gudgeons to the end of the 18-foot long solid white oak shaft. Both ends of this now 20-sided timber receive steel gudgeons, or axles, wedged into place by shear brute strength. The ends are then banded with hot iron straps which will cool in place virtually seizing the gudgeon-embedded timber, ensuring a long operational life. (Ben Hassett) "You want the shaft to last for two, two wheels. So you're talking about, you want want a shaft to last about 50 years, and, you know, a wheel to last 25 to 30. and before it needs re, repairs, like, the buckets and parts of it will need to be replaced and repaired over, after about 25 years or so." (Narrator) The shaft and wheel sections are now prepared to make the 360-mile trip to Fairfield County. The shipment arrives on a cool, rainy Monday morning. The long-awaited cargo is unloaded and ready for the trip to its final destination. The following day, the bearing blocks are set into place and the nearly 6,000-pound shaft, fashioned from a single piece of white oak, is very slowly lifted, then lowered, its gudgeons finally cradled in the oil-impregnated bronze sleeve bearing blocks. One-by-one, the arms of the wheel are fitted into pre-carved mortise sockets of the shaft. Each one is designed with barely enough wiggle room allowed. Using wedges and pegs, this tension fit system is centuries old. Once the joints are exposed to moisture over time, they will swell and become watertight. With the rims finally attached to the arms, the wheel has its shape. Tongue and groove slats are inserted in the pre-cut channels of the rim to form the buckets and the entire interior circumference of the wheel is enclosed by individual interlocking sole plates. The long-awaited event was celebrated by hundreds of citizens, volunteers, and visitors. Spontaneously, those in attendance were invited to step up and, by hand, give the wheel a turn. This image becomes a symbol of sorts, a tribute, to the people power that every man, woman, and family carried with them through a decade of uncertainty, to a vision and a promise to learn from the past. In a dramatic way, this prehistoric setting is complemented by the mill and the covered bridge. The 26-foot in diameter waterwheel now complete, work begins on custom crafting a gearing mechanism to reliably transfer the power of the spinning waterwheel to the rotation of perfectly balanced millstones. (Jan Elzy) "Our calculations determined that we felt we could turn the waterwheel at about 8 RPM. And we knew that the 44-inch stones that we were going to put in to grind the grain, they needed to turn about 106 RPM. (Narrator) The precision involved is critical. The calculations made on paper and computer-aided simulations must play out in the real world. Massive white oak logs have been fashioned off-site into hundreds of individual beams, along with shafts and gears, which, once assembled, will create a one-of-a-kind powerhouse. Millwright, Ben Hassett, says this 21st-century mechanical restoration was not all that different from the work done by the original millwrights. (Ben Hassett) "Rigging is still the same, how we move these heavy weights in a confined area, to a level of precision, is still the same. So you still have, like, the same, um, thought process going into it except now we have a higher degree of safety associated with it. And we get by with with fewer, um, people; it's less labor-intensive." (Worker) "You're about eight inches past over here." (Second Worker) "You'll be hitting, you'll be hitting the stone pier down here." (Narrator) The next phase of restoring the 1824 mill is about to begin. (Workers talking in background.) (Narrator) An overhead crane system must be installed to enable timbers, some weighing up to 1800 pounds, to be guided into position and assembled in tight quarters. Meanwhile, time is spent preparing precisely cut timbers for a lifetime of work in the mill, while other pieces of this giant clockwork-like mechanism wait to be put into place. Entering through a small doorway, these massive white oak beams will support the ambitions of the entire restoration. one by one, the timbers are set into place to create what is called the Hurst frame. (Jan Elzy) "It is not tied at all to the building. It's completely independent. It sits on its own foundation. And, when the stones start to turn, this frame will start to move until we get up to speed, and once it's up to speed, the motion of this whole frame becomes very small. But when you're first starting it shakes a lot! And if that was tied to the building, the whole building would start to move. So, they, they keep the Hurst frame separate from the building, and it's on its own foundation. Yet, it will be tied mechanically through gearing and belts and shafts to equipment that is attached to the building." (Narrator) It's been over a century since Rock Mill rumbled with the sound of millstones processing corn and wheat into flour or meal. But, day by day, the project nears ever closer to completion, as the millwright's crews assemble the intricate interlocking superstructure, which will once again make that possible. (Workers Talking) "...that's not bringing a big skill saw... I'll just run it down the back of this thing." (Narrator) Trimming is needed here and there to have the new beams fit perfectly between the natural stone cliff and the inside of the mill. It's worth noting here that this restoration began with only a few physical clues, old photographs, and some written documents to go by. (Ben Hassett) We really didn't have anything to start with except for the, the stone And so, we when we started, all those years ago, we started looking at the, the the rock faces, the pockets, and the stones. And from those pockets, and just some forensics from the structure, and the the hillside and gorge, is that, that's where we were able to really kind of put all the pieces together. And so you get some critical elevation set, some widths, widths of frames and different things, based on pockets and cutouts in the, in the, in the stones when we had no physical, uh, built remains, just, kind of, more of the, the shadow of what was there. We're working with the gorge, not making the gorge work with us." (Narrator) The role of the volunteer in this story of preservation should never be underestimated! Bruce Babcock, a retired mechanical engineer, is one example of how the contributions of many individuals helped to realize common goals. Bruce became fascinated with the project after a visit to the mill with a friend. In the summer of 2010, he began, on his own, to try and determine the location of structures which had supported the original waterwheel. The result was evidence that would indicate that multiple mills had, at one time, occupied the area. (Bruce Babcock) "And it began to give us a profile, uh, and a picture of, of all of the many man-made recesses that have been carved into that, that wall, uh, over the last, uh, uh, well, almost, uh, approaching 200 years now. So, there's been a lot, a lot, a lot, of work done in this area and it shows up in many areas out here." (Narrator) As the Hurst frame is being assembled inside the mill, there's work to be done outside, on the gorge face, immediately below the power floor, where a pneumatic chisel is used to widen the clearance for the wallower gear. Now, the vertical shaft can be lowered into place. Again, these are some of the adjustments made to the nearly two-centuries-old work of German stone carvers to accommodate the workings of today's drive train. The concave space created for the vertical shaft was not the only remarkable feat achieved by the immigrant craftsmen. (Jan Elzy) "Then,they had to cut a gorge through the sandstone to get the water from the dam that had been put in the river to get it over to the wheel. And, that little gorge that was hand cut, 3-foot wide, 18-foot deep, 30-feet long, only one like it in the United States!" (Narrator) Hardware now secures the gudgeon-embedded shaft on the power floor level. Accuracy is everything! Sometimes called the wallower gear, this mechanism is a vital part of the mill's drive train. Small adjustments to the alignment of gears will prove to be critical in the ultimate production deficiency of the mill. (Ben Hassett) "So much of, uh, milling is sensory, where it's feel, and it's something that you just have to develop over time." (Narrator) An example of the experience and care brought to this restoration by the millwright is the application of his own timber-to-timber bonding mixture. (Ben Hassett) "So I start with with a base, that I do one part turpentine, one part linseed oil, and, uh, one part beeswax. And it kind of gives me the consistency that I can still apply cold, but when I heat it up and apply it with a brush onto the cogs at different points, it, it, it stays, it wicks into the pores, and then it, it has some tack. So under pressure, under the pressure of the, the the gear train under load, it has lubrication properties but then it has tack so it doesn't fling off." (Narrator) The great spur wheel, with its 64 cogs, is key to transferring power to smaller gears, called stone nuts, which will drive the runner stones on the floor above. Once the great spur wheel is in place, as the hub of power distribution below the milling floor, the cogs, or teeth, on the outer circumference are inserted and pegged by dowels on the inside of the wheel. Now, the stone nuts must be inched into place, to be meshed with the great spur wheel. Using his chisel to fine-tune the marriage of one gear tooth to another, the experienced millwright knows exactly where attention is needed. The evident craftsmanship that makes this restoration possible is acquired over time. Some believe the future of such skilled practitioners is in doubt. (Ed Shaw) "It's just, it's really getting hard to find any young folks that are interested in this type of work anymore. Uh, most of my guys have been around for quite a while; they're all just getting close to, to retirement age. And, uh, I just don't know if we're going to ever have any people that are qualified to do this type work in the future." (Narrator) In the gorge, the 14-foot in diameter pit wheel is coming together, layer at a time. The custom, handcrafted sections fit together, like a circular puzzle, radiating out of the waterwheel shaft. Ninety-six wooden cogs are hammered into tight slots and pegged with dowels. Then, adjustments are made to hardware and spindle to ensure the stone nuts' complete freedom of movement. once they are engaged. Gradually, the gearing mechanism is tested for proper meshing. (Ben Hassett) "So, initially I was, we started turning just by somebody turning the wheel. And, that's an imperfect process, but allows me to kind of gauge the clearances and tolerances that I'm going to eventually finish to. And, then you add water, and water provides a consistent, uh, motive force but if there's no load, if we're just turning the gears and no grinding is taking place, there's no load, so we're not wearing, uh, wearing in the teeth the way we need to. So, as the, the mechanism operates under load it impresses, or puts an imprint on, the meshing teeth faces. So I'm able to kind of go back, kind of read the faces, and pare down." (Narrator) One of the most unique aspects of the restoration is the story of the millstones. Each set, called burr stones, can be traced back to a region in France known as the Paris Basin. The millstones are a porous rock composition of tough, fossil embedded limestone. (Ben Hassett) They're both 42 inches in diameter, they're both 21 inches deep, so, uh, one set, which would be the, the downstream set, which we're going to be using as a wheat stone um, came from, came from Wythe County, I believe, Wythe County, Virginia. Uh, the monolithic set, came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania." (Narrator) Before the milling floor is even complete, the bedstones are secured into position, at floor level. They'll always remain stationary, never turning during the milling process. It's just the opposite for the aptly named runner stones, which are positioned over, but not touching, the bedstones. (Jan Elzy) "When we're grinding corn we're running about a 3/16 of an inch gap, and when we're running wheat we run about 1/16 of an inch gap." (Narrator) The stones weigh approximately one ton each. Ben Hassett describes what takes place during the milling process. (Ben Hassett) As that runner stem rotates around it actually creates a shearing action as the furrows cross each other. So, that shears the grain and actually helps push all the product that's going through the center of the rotostone out to the periphery. In Rock Mill here we have a set of stones that's going to be dressed for wheat or rye, and then this stone is going to be dressed for corn. And what gives the distinction between the two different dress patterns is the depth of the burrows." (Narrator) Since these stones were previously used in Pennsylvania and Virginia, they must be redressed for Rock Mill. That means ridding the stone of the old furrow pattern by first leveling the surface. That's done by scraping on a thick coat of rouge using a true piece of white oak called a paint staff. (Ben Hassett) "Set it on the face of the stone, and then i sweep... sweep the stone. And what it does is it rouges the high spotsl" (Narrator) After the stone has been flattened with pneumatic tools, more precision tools are used to create new furrows. (Ben Hassett) "You, uh, rest your one end of the, of the pick or bill in your hand, and you lift it with the other." (Narrator) Redressing a set of millstones can easily take at least 40 hours! (Ben Hassett) "Since we didn't have a dress to to work with and I, I laid out a new dress and, and carved that pattern into the face of the stones. * used a period dress that would have fit with the early 1800s, here. It's actually, uh, on millstones, and if you go to the UK, uh, you will see this dress pattern." (Narrator) The trimming, testing, and balancing has been done. The day has arrived to open the forebay gate and start the mill, operating under full water power. As the massive waterwheel begins to rotate, the gearing mechanism engages the powertrain. And, on Sunday, June 11, 2017, corn is ground at Rock Mill for the first time in over 100 years! (Ben Hassett) The tolerances in this primitive machines are so different than, than any sort of modern machines, but it all works." And it's knowing, you know, what those tolerances that, are, what the rhythms are, and and the harmonics, and making it all work. And it's just kind of a composition of, kind of, bringing everything together to make it all work as one machine." (Narrator) The Rock Mill restoration story is just one example of how cultures advance by combining nature and technology. Water... timber... stone... and iron, become the tools of human ingenuity and ambition. Hassett accepted the challenges of this restoration because he understood the singular, cultural significance of this spot, in this gorge, on this river. He worked with a keen respect for those who came before him as he retraced the thought processes of those men with dreams. (Ben Hassett) It's not just a structure, it is, it is a machine. Um, but it's not just a machine; it's a community is what it is. We have all these people coming together to take, um, something that was falling down, that had a tie to the history and a tie to the community that had basically disappeared. And it's been reconstructed now. And then, at the end of the project you see people coming back. And, I think that's kind of really pulling the whole story together, and I think that's kind of an amazing thing to happen here." (Bruck Babcock) What is really striking is the amount of mathematics that are in there - how much they knew about calculating horsepowers and torques and stresses and buildings - that this was was engineering that's on a par with engineering that's being done today!" (Narrator) As a society, we've made astonishing technological progress in the last 200 years. We have become more urban and less rural. While agriculture has become more efficient, we don't do things the same way we used to because, basically, we don't have to. We measure progress by the large and small improvements made to our daily lives. (Ben Hassett) Today, uh, in, in a world of electronics, that anything mechanical now is almost an appliance. You open the hood of a car you don't see a whole lot going on in there. They're not mechanical control systems anymore, they're, they're boxes. And so, when you see a box you don't know what's going on inside of it. In all these different things, mechanics is physics, and physics is natural law, and it's all common sense. So, if somebody, uh, is interested they can look things look at something in operation and figure it out, and it gets their wheels turning. And, just, I think kind of opens people's eyes." (Narrator) These eye-opening moments are experiential; they're captured in memories and, depending on the individual, first-time experiences can live in the mind forever, and they can change people's lives. (Steve Parker) "You go in the mill, you use all your senses. You can smell the grain, you can smell the heat of the wooden gears as they mesh together. You can feel the building shaking, and you can hear the noise. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And, it's so much better than walking out here and looking at a nice sign that says, 'at this site once stood Rock Mill'." (Narrator) In its scarcity and its abundance, water is only a visitor; it has no home. So, in some form, and at one time, these very waters overflowed the banks of the Nile, transported ancient ships of discovery, and formed clouds above colonial farms. (Ed Shaw) I think the younger people will, especially the little kids, they'll see it now and they'll just think, 'man, boy this is just really big and awesome', and then they'll come back as they get a little older and see it and really appreciate it then. But, but i find in this, now, almost everybody that comes here appreciates what we've done. I, I've never had anybody, you know, say, 'well, this was really a waste of, wasted time and money'." (Narrator) This community came together in a very personal way to do something which spoke to each and every one of them. They came to invest in their future by saving their past.