Stillwater History, Part One: The Head Race

Let’s begin today with a narrative tour of the Stillwater Mill Site.  As recently as this summer, it has been cleared of dense brush, revealing to locals driving on Stillwater Road in Smithfield, two historic stone structures that accompany a dam.  This blog is a tour that will take our curious reader, perhaps having just recently seen these buildings for the first time, back to a time when the mill served the community, and helped shape the village of Stillwater.

  

Finding a time to set the story is difficult.  Throughout its development, there were several different technological adaptations to the mill, specialized modifications to the river’s stream flow, and natural environmental impacts that continue to reshape the mill; river; community, and its surroundings.

     We welcome you to take look at what we have found, presented here in this blog, and determine for yourself, the reader, whether our interpretation of the mill as a story "fits" into the historical context; any prior knowledge of the site similar to what we are describing can be mentioned.  If you would comment, please feel free to let us know your experiences with the mill at Stillwater in a historic context.

THE HEAD RACE

                                                                          (Part 1)

     We are starting the mill tour with the head race.  The term is used to describe the channel for bringing flowing water to the water wheel from a pond or stream.   After the water leaves the water wheel, it flows away through a channel called the tail race.  The old wooden water wheels that were used at the Stillwater mill are long gone, and the only obvious remaining hydro-power element is the boiler plate iron turbine that still has water flowing through it.  We believe that if the internal working mechanisms of this turbine were made of Brass, the turbine may still be functional. 

     We know that the dam was modified and enlarged over time, so it is logical that the head race was also changed over time to fit the new dam configuration.  What we discovered was a series of modifications to the head race that open windows to the character and ingenuity of the early Quaker settlers of Smithfield.  These discoveries also provide clues to the small evolutionary changes in technology that were the basis for the huge advances that made the Industrial Revolution.

                                                            

     Our tour continues, by looking at one of the site's most outstanding features, the dual arches that form the north and south foundation walls of the mill.  The above photo is a view of the head race at the north side of building with the iron turbine in foreground.  Note the “basement” arch.  This arch, which allows water to flow through the structure, was carefully constructed of cut granite while the surrounding foundation and building walls are primarily made from field stone (with the exception of cut granite which was used to "coin" the buildings four corners).  Here we ask: why would people who believed that simplicity and functionality; where virtues go to the expense and effort to construct these interesting architectural elements?

     Our theory is that arched head race through basement provided an additional 10-12 feet of hydraulic head which would have translated into approximately 25% additional “Water Power” for the mill.                                                             

     Here we see a detail of the stonework used in head race arch.  Note use of granite blocks for the arch and the use of local field stone for wall.  Also note "drill" holes- these quarry marks can be useful in determining the age or date the stone was prepared.   Upon a close up examination of the notches used to split the stone,  it has a lack of uniformity in terms of:  drill holes; the tool marks used to make the holes; and the blocks of granite, all are suggestive of very early workmanship.   For the purposes it serves in this blog, we will call the fully open archway 'the original' or 'first head race configuration'.

     Our first suggestion may be that the head race was changed- evidence is found in support of this- in the above photo.  The overlap of the field stone wall in front of the granite arch indicates a high probability that this addition to the head race took place after the original mill construction.  The net effect of this "new" wall was: to reduce the width of the mill's basement opening arch configuration- from 13 feet (base of arch to base of arch) to 10 feet across (the second head race configuration).  This narrower head race was lined with field stone, and continues in a northerly direction for a distance of about 10 feet where it is interrupted by what appears to be an even newer wall- made of brick.  This new brick wall is the background for the new 'ground level' upon which the iron turbine sits.

      So we ask: why these changes?   At some point, technology changed between different construction styles: from that utilized an old-style water wheel, to a different- and probably more efficient- water wheel mechanism.   Additional structural modifications to the head race (now lined with a new style of brick wall)  indicate that there were further adaptations to the head race to accommodate even newer technologies (configuration 3).

      ... To be continued