OUR OLD WATERWHEEL
Our big old waterwheel (in Pacheco) was a wonderful thing
-you didn’t have to crank it!
-the gas tank didn’t have to be filled every day!
-no oil changes needed
-no nasty pollution
-and it didn’t use up vital natural resources!
-so long as we had water in the ditch it just ran and ran and ran!
We used it to grind our corn -
Not only did we grind our own corn, but we ground corn for everybody else in the
valley. It seems to me that sometimes people even brought corn from as far away as
Hop Valley (4 or 5 miles) for us to grind.
We used it to grind our wheat and rye -
Dad tried raising both in Pacheco, but the winters were a little too cold (too much
frost without any snow cover to protect the young plants!) When we could, Dad would buy wheat in Dublan. Wheat was a real treat. We would go through a batch of Mother’s wholewheat bread like a horde of hungry locusts!
We used it to run the threshing machine - (more another time)
We used it to run the molasses mill -
When Dad first started making molasses in Pacheco he mounted the mill on four short posts and set up a sweep on top. A team of horses pulled the sweep. One of the men fed stalks of cane into the mill as the horses went round and round oand round. Juice from the cane ran in little trickles down into a big pan under the mill and from there through a pipe to a 50-gallon barrel. After a year or two of this, Dad figured out a way to hook the mill up to the waterwheel. That was faster and a lot easier on the horses. The waterwheel didn’t get tired! It just ran and ran and ran!
We used the waterwheel to run the shingle mill - (more later)
The Porters, who built a waterwheel at this same spot many years before us, used their wheel to run a grist mill, a sawmill and a shingle mill. Lots of history here!
And we even used the waterwheel to run a table saw –
Dad must have omade over 500 beehives for the McNeils in Colonia Dublan. Their bees made produced some of the best mesquite honey I have ever tasted. It was delicious!
Notes:
Of the various waterwheels we have found, the Mabry Mill comes the closest in appearance, size and “spirit” to our waterwheel in Pacheco.
BuiltOriginal mill built about 1910, restored by the National Park Service,
1948
Built byA Mr. Ed Mabry - a very enterprising man.
SizeDiameter - approx. 12-14 feet.
MaterialOak
PurposeUsed to grind corn and flax seed, run a sawmill and a woodshop.
WhereBlue Ridge Parkway (mile 176) near Meadows of Dan, Virginia.
CommentsWell worth seeing. Lots of history here!
Every valley in the country had a waterwheel and a mill of some kind back in the early days. The 1840 census showed 24,661 mills in operation (as reported on a display at a big, 45', waterwheel built by Dr. Edward T. Bale in 1845, near Calistoga, California).
Our waterwheel in Pacheco -
BuiltAbout 1928 or 1929. Earlier waterwheel and mill built in this same location by Warriner Ahaz Porter (about 1897).
ByMarion L. Wilson (another very enterprising man), with help from Leonard Allen, a good friend and member of the Pacheco Ward.
Size16 feet in diameter, about 48" wide. Believe me, it was a going machine, capable of doing a lot of work in one day!
MaterialPine - the only lumber available in our part of the woods.
PurposeGrind corn, wheat, rye; run the molasses mill, the threshing machine, the shingle mill and a table saw. Dad later built a small paddle wheel at the head of the flume to run our washing machine and churn butter.
CommentsIt was a marvelous thing to see that waterwheel in motion. This was one case where gravity worked for us instead of against us!