The Geography of Grist, Flour, and Saw Mills: Indicators of Land-Use History in Virginia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to use grist, flour, and saw mills as indicators of settlement and trace the relationship between the occurrence of mills and the physical geography in a county in the Appalachian Mountains. We verified the locations of 18 grist and flour mills and 26 saw mills that operated during the period of 1800 to 1950. Contrary to previous studies, which linked the location of mills to infertile soils, a majority of mills in our study area (100% of grist and flour mills and 77% of saw mills) were located on fertile, limestone-based soils. This difference may be attributed to the dependence on water as a power source. Thus, mills were located on rich soils adjacent to a river or creek. Present day land ownership patterns were influenced by the land use history of the area, with areas that had housed grist or flour mills remaining in private ownership, while areas that had been dominated by saw mills converting largely to federal ownership.