Historic Yates Mill, Raleigh NC a View into History
Background:
Historic Yates Mills County Park is a joint effort of Yates Mill Associates, Inc. and Wake County Parks Department. The land under both the mill and the parkland is owned by North Carolina State University that maintains an on site educational classroom facility and research fields nearby.
The water powered “grist” mill operated on Steep Creek for over 200 years.
The mill sits on the corner of a twenty acre mill pond that is itself in one corner of the 174 acre park.
From Raleigh the easiest way to reach the park is to take I440 to the Lake Wheeler exit (exit 287) and Lake Wheeler Rd. south. (away from the farmers market) Go across Tryon Rd. (at the light) and proceed south for about 1 1/2 miles. When you see Mid Pines Rd. on your right, the park entrance will be coming up 1/3 mile on the right.
If you reach Penny Rd. on your right you have just passed the park and will need to turn around.
The ride, though short, is pretty pleasant. Once you cross Tryon Rd. most of the land on either side is part of NC State and better yet is dedicated to agriculture. Both horses and cattle can be seen in the fields bordering the road.
As you enter into the Park off Wheeler Lake Rd. you notice immediately the curving entry way is as wide and a bit better paved than the road. Both sides are green and bountiful with small life. The parking lot is large, neat and well proportioned. There is a large building at the far end of the parking lot.
This building contains a museum about the mill and milling on one end. It is air conditioned which can be quite a relief on a hot Carolina day. In the museum there are numerous exhibits including quite a few that allow you to physically get hands on with the equipment.
As and educational museum, though small, it has a plethora of educational material about the mills and there workings. In addition to buttons that run short films on TV screens, they have a small theater with showings of longer films twice a day. (currently 10 and 4)
The other half of the building, which I did not visit, is made up of classrooms and labs for NC State students studying environmental and agriculture type courses.
Though this building is a modern, pleasant building with excellent facilities, I came here to see the mill and mill dam.
I have passed by this mill perhaps a hundred times in the last few years and it was always closed. It turns out that the mill was originally damaged in Hurricane Fran in 1996 almost to the point of being a total loss. From that time, the county government repaired the dam.
That still left a mill that was basically unsafe and badly damaged. For every problem there is a solution. And what this mill needed were some people who felt that the history of milling in Wake County was important enough to do something about.
The people who felt that way formed “The Yates Mill Associates, Inc.” and began the task of rebuilding the mill starting in 1989. This work was definitely delayed by the damage caused by Fran in 1996. This year Hurricane Alberto dumped record amounts of water in the Raleigh area and did some additional damage to the improvements.
Fortunately the dam and mill weathered the storm, though a nearby portion of the mill pond trail is now part of the pond.
I proceeded down the trail to the Mill where the associates had set up a ten with information on the Mill and its history. The ladies were most attractively dressed in period dresses and the men in period work clothes. There is a smaller building with its door shut and locked. It is a good example of the construction of the mid seventeen hundreds with log and mud.
The larger building, the mill is several stories in height with each floor providing some function of the milling process. The lowest floor is down beneath the water lever. It is where the power for the milling process is generated.
It has a gate that can be opened and closed. When open a steady flow of water runs over the top of the water wheel. As the weight of the water causes the wheel to turn its energy is passed along using gears and chains. Sort of the way when we pedal a bicycle the small gears turn a larger wheel, only it is the water turning the water wheel that in turn passes its energy to small gears that turns the chain that in its turn, turns still more gears and belts.
The way the mill has been restored you can see how it all works. It makes a lot of sense to visit the museum first; that way all the activity that is going on will be clear.
Inside the mill is only open when the associates are there, which is about once a month at the present time. It is therefore a good idea to call ahead and get the mill open schedule.
From the mill you can get a really good view of the dam as the water trickles over it. On open days the associates not only give tours but demonstrate the milling process.
The park has many other amenities. There are picnic tables for those who brought a lunch. There are two long bridges where you can fish from, if that is your pleasure.
There are three trails that lead to either along the pond, through the woods or along a neighboring creek. I haven’t followed them all the way yet but having gone along each just a short distance it is clear these trails are real hiking trails. They are slow, bumpy and natural. If you love the natural woods, these are them.
Due to the sensitive nature of the park; no bikes, boats, smoking, alcoholic beverages, fires, amplified music, horses or pets are allowed.
For birders, the long open bridges offer an open view of the mill pond. An additional bridge crosses some open wet land and also affords good visibility.
Even in the short trip I saw a few small birds and one large wading bird. For those that like bugs, I also saw a lot of these in the grassy areas. A few kindly posed for close-ups.
If you would like more information on Yates Mill or the Yates Mill County Park:
Yates Mill Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 10512
Raleigh, NC 27605-0512
Historic Yates Mill
County Park
4620 Lake Wheeler Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27603
Phone: (919) 856-6675
Yates Mill is on the National Register of Historic Sites.
