Park Place
MCCONNELLS MILL STATE PARK, Lawrence County — Fire and ice couldn't close the grist mill in Slippery Rock Creek Gorge for long, but the COVID-19 pandemic did.
But just as it recovered from a catastrophic fire in 1867 and periodic winter water wheel freezes, the grist mill in McConnells Mill State Park is open for visitors once again.
Environmental education specialist Mike Shaffer said the mill reopened Thursday after being closed due to the pandemic.
But the mill will be open on a reduced schedule, and guided tours are scrapped for the time being.
“The mill will be open to visitors from 10:30 to noon and again from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays,” Shaffer said. The hour break will allow park workers to disinfect all high-touch surfaces.
Visitors will enter on the third floor and make their way down to the first floor and the exit. Masks are mandatory for visitors and social distancing is encouraged.
No more than 10 visitors at a time will be allowed on each of the three floors open to the public. Tours will be self-guided, although there will be park employees and volunteers available to answer questions.He noted visitors to the mill should park in the Point or Kildoo parking lots and either walk down the road or take the stairs to the mill because there is limited parking at the mill itself.Shaffer said the original mill was constructed along Slippery Rock Creek in 1852, but burned to the ground after being struck by lightning in 1867. It was rebuilt in 1868 and was in continual use until it closed in 1928.Daniel Kennedy was the original owner, but eventually the McConnell family owned the mill.“They owned and operated it the longest,” Shaffer said.When it was operating, the mill ground the wheat, buckwheat, corn and oats from farmers in a seven-mile radius into flour and animal feed.
The waterwheel and later turbines provided the power to sets of buffalo leather belts that turned the machines, which cleaned, separated, scoured and finally ground the grain into flour as well as powered the elevators that lifted the grain between floors.The turbine in the mill now produces about 20 horsepower, enough to run all the machines and elevators.Shaffer pointed out the power came from a free, renewable resource, the water from Slippery Rock Creek.“This was a great place to build a mill,” Shaffer said. “Glacial melt water scoured the gorge and deepened it to 300 feet. It's a really tight channel, steep and deep.”“There were lumber mills, wool mills, all water powered,” said Shaffer, adding old millstones from smaller operations can still be found in the gorge.Kennedy built a wooden dam to ensure a water flow to power the mill.“The mill operated year-round. Farmers wouldn't grind all their grain at once,” Shaffer said.No money exchanged hands. Shaffer said the miller would charge farmers about a fifth of the finished product. Sixty pounds of wheat equaled 45 pounds of flour.
At one point, said park volunteer Bill Shaw, the building developed a lean and cables had to be used to straighten it again. His wife, Polly Shaw, is at work on a history of McConnells Mill State Park.After the mill closed, Shaffer said longtime maintenance worker Mose Wharton continued to live on the premises, repairing the building and keeping vandals away. Wharton, who was born a slave, died in 1954 at the age of 94.Three years later, the property was made into a state park.Nearly 100 people visited the mill Friday, Shaffer said.In this summer of shutdowns, more and more people are turning to state parks, he said.“There are no concerts, no ball games. More and more people are coming to state parks to de-stress and recreate,” Shaffer said.Fellow environmental education specialist Natalie Simon said park attendance was up for April and May.“It's been unreal,” Simon said, noting the vast majority of visitors are wearing masks and following pandemic guidelines.“I hope people enjoy their visit to the park,” she said. “But one of the most important ways to do that is to research before they visit.”She recommends using the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website's Find a Park Feature to get information on park features and hours.McConnells Mill State Park's grist mill provides an instructive glimpse of past ingenuity, according to Shaffer.“You have to know where you came from to see how far we've went,” Shaffer said.
