Falls Mill & Pritchard's Distillery Tour
May 13, 2008 We cover two interesting plant tours in this travel log, Pritchard's Distillery Tour and Falls Mill both in Tennessee. We left our home in Pensacola on Monday, May 12 and spent the night at a Wal-Mart in Calera, Alabama. My sister and brother in law live in Calera. We had dinner with them. Family time is always good. Tuesday morning we had planned to do the Golden Flake Potato Chip tour in Birmingham which was just 27-miles from Calera. We pulled onto I-65 at 8am for the 27-mile drive to the plant where we were scheduled for the 9:30 tour. Within a very few miles I-65 turned into a parking lot. No accidents or anything just local traffic clogging the interstate. Long story short, we did not make it to Golden Flake by the 9:30 tour time. To say I was in a bad mood would be an understatement. We actually had 4-plant tours lined up for Alabama and did not get to do even one of them. For various reasons the other three tours could not take us. Oh well, so much for Alabama plant tours. We rolled past the Golden Flake Potato Chip factory in Birmingham without unhooking our Saturn tow-car. We continued on to Fayetteville, Tennessee where we stopped in a Wal-Mart and unhooked the Saturn and drove to Prichard's Distillery in Kelso, TN just a few miles from Fayetteville. We enjoyed the tour but unfortunately did not get any pictures that I could use except this picture of Pritchard's Distillery. Prichard's is a new distillery that has set up business in an old school house which they are restoring.
Pritchard's Distillery Tour
If you are in the area give them a call 931-433-5454. They are good folks that produce a fine line of rum. Prichard's is a small distillery and as such can spend quality time with you answering questions.
Click here for a link to our tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery Tour in Lynchburg, Tennessee
Click here for a link to our tour of the Maker's Mark Distillery Tour
Falls Mill
From the Prichard's Distillery tour we continued east on US-64 about 20-miles to Falls Mill located near the small town of Huntland. Falls Mill is a grist mill powered by a 32' overshot water wheel.
Falls Mill
This overshot water wheel at Falls Mill was installed in the old mill in 1906. This water wheel provides operating power for all machinery in the mill. It is believed to be the largest overshot water wheel still in productive service in the U.S.
Water wheel at Falls Mill
I took this picture from the top of the water wheel looking down. I was particularly fascinated by the large diameter gear used on that huge water wheel at Falls Mill.
Dam at Falls Mill
Water is diverted from this stone dam through a millrace to power the wheel at Falls Mill.
Millrace at Falls Mill
This is the millrace that delivers water that powers Falls Mill.
Falls Mill
Inside Falls Mill is a main line shaft that spans the length of the building. It is belted and geared directly to the water wheel. It drives machinery on 4-floors of the building via a series of flat belts. This line shaft can turn up to 150-revolutions per-minute.
It can develop about 32 brake horsepower at full gate and 3 revolutions per-minute of the water wheel.
Falls Mill has operated as a flour and grist mill since 1969. The antique grain milling equipment was collected from five different old mills and factories but most of it came from the Boiling Fork (Little Red) Mill in Winchester, Tennessee. I will explain what happened to the Boiling Fork (Little Red) Mill a little later. All equipment in the mill is powered from the water wheel and most of it is still used on a regular basis.
Grinding rocks at Falls Mill
This picture captures corn tumbling into the hole in the center of the grinding rocks only to emerge as grits and corn meal.
This corn is being ground with 36" diameter granite buhrstones weighing 1,500 pounds each, quarried and faced by hand.
Jim, the miller, explained to us how he adjusted the buhrstones so that they were just a fraction of an inch apart. The distance separating the stones determines the coarseness of the flour or meal being produced.
After the corn is ground it is sifted. The fine product becomes corn meal while the more coarse product becomes stone ground grits. The only difference between grits and corn meal is the size.
In another part of Falls Mill a pair of 30-inch diameter millstones are used in a vertical stone grinding mill to produce wheat, rye, buckwheat, soy, and other flours. Unfortunately for us they were grinding corn during our visit. They will be grinding winter wheat in June. Much of the machinery in this mill came from the Boiling Fork or "Little Red" Mill near Winchester, Tennessee. It was operational from 1935 until it was scheduled to be destroyed by TVA to make way for the Tims Ford Lake. In 1969, most of the milling machinery, and millers Gonsolin and Riley, moved here. Falls Mill officially reopened as a grain mill in 1970, almost a century after its construction as a cotton and woolen factory.
Wheat field not far from Falls Mill
This winter wheat will be ready for harvest in June. Some of it will find its way to Falls Mill.
In 1810, this was a leading cotton-producing region. The brick Falls Mill building was constructed around 1825, and housed a thread mill, which utilized the water power of Bean's Creek. It operated sporadically until about 1890. Today Falls Mill is a working grist mill.
Click here for more Tennessee Travel Adventures Until next time remember how good life is.
More Tennessee AdventuresSome of our Miscellaneous Subjects ** More 2008 Travel Adventures
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
Mike & Joyce Hendrix who we are We hope you liked this page. If you do you might be interested in some of our other Travel Adventures: Mike & Joyce Hendrix's home page Travel Adventures by Year ** Travel Adventures by State ** Plants ** Marine-Boats ** Geology ** Exciting Drives ** Cute Signs ** RV Subjects ** Miscellaneous Subjects
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