Fun+Facts

Handy for Hand Milling
Anyone up for this sort of ambitious project? [|BUILD YOUR OWN QUERN]. Yikes - that's a lot of work. It would be cool, though, and useful for park program demonstration purposes.


 * Quern-stones** are stone tools used for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a **quern**, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a **handstone**. They were first used in the Neolithic to grind cereals into flour.

[[image:yatesmillpark/Pied-billed%20Grebe%20-%20Texas%2004-06%20-%20004.jpg width="211" height="138" align="right"]]Pied Eyed
A single Pied-billed Grebe has recently arrived at Yates Millpond. This bird is typically seen on the pond during the late fall to early spring seasons. It is a medium-sized, stocky bird with brown upperparts, paler brown underparts with barred sides and flanks, and distinct white undertail coverts. Its chin is black and its bill is white with a central black ring. Its eyes are dark. Grebes feeds on aquatic insects and vegetation, small fish and crustaceans. Their preferred habitats include marshes and ponds.

Here are a few interesting facts about grebes:
 * A group of grebes are collectively known as a "water dance" of grebes.
 * Although it swims like a duck, it does not have webbed feet. Each toe has lobes extending out on the sides that provide extra surface area for paddling.
 * Folk names of this grebe include dabchick, devil-diver, dive-dapper, hell-diver, and water witch.
 * When disturbed, grebes dive headfirst under water, or they sink slowly into the water until only their heads are above water, like submarine periscopes.
 * The Pied-billed Grebe is rarely seen in flight. It prefers to escape predators by diving, and it migrates at night.

Will the real "Yates Mill" please stand up?
Did you know (and maybe you do, especially if you are a volunteer mill interpreter) that the old mill on Steephill Creek that serves as the centerpiece of Historic Yates Mill County Park was not the first "Yates Mill" in the Wake County area? Maps dating from the late 19th century include a mill on Walnut Creek that is labeled as "Yates Mill" while our mill is labeled on the same map as "Penney's Mill". Phares Yates (the first Yates to own our mill) and his brother Alvis owned another mill - the one on Walnut Creek - before Phares took over our mill in 1863 from James Penny and his business associates. In fact, there was even a court deposition from 1859 where Phares and Alvis were sued by the Woodall family for damage that was done when the waters of the Yates' millpond backed up onto the Woodall's property. The Yates brothers agreed to pay the Woodalls $5 per acre with the number of acres damaged to be determined by a subsequent survey. Supposedly the Yates name stayed with the Walnut Creek mill for many years (we believe this mill stood where Lake Johnson is today), while our mill continued to be called Penny's Mill after Phares Yates took over its ownership. This is certainly an important fact for us to keep in mind when researching the mill's history as we might be looking at historical documents that could be referring to the wrong mill!



Kernels of Goodness
Botanists classify corn as a grass, Zea mays. Each plant has separate male and female flowers that are found on each stalk. The "tassels" at the top of the mature plant are the pollen-producing male flowers. The "silk" that emerges from the top of each ear of corn is a portion of the female flower.

When wind-borne pollen reaches a strand of silk, it moves down the silk via a pollen tube to the egg. Fertilization occurs, and a kernel of corn forms. Each mature kernel on an ear of corn is the result of successful fertilization. An ear of corn bears up to 1,000 kernels, and each stalk bears only one to three ears. The cob is protected by modified leaves - i.e., the husk.

Corn has been around for a long time. Its roots can be traced to prehistoric Mexico. The earliest corn, or maize as it's known in Mexico, dates back at least 9,000 years. Cobs of this early corn (also known as Teosinte, of which we now have replicas to use for educational purposes!) were no doubt puny and primitive by today's standards.

Slowly corn spread throughout the Americas. Columbus carried seed back to Europe. Today, its various cultivars (sweet corn, field corn, popcorn, Indian corn, etc.) are grow from sea level to elevations of 10,000 feet. Given sufficient moisture and a long enough growing season (130 to 140 days), corn grows almost everywhere. Corn ranks as the world's most important cereal crop -- 817 million tons were consumed worldwide in 2009.

Though we enjoy fresh sweet corn for just a few weeks each summer, around the world corn has been a staple for centuries. It is the main ingredient in traditional porridges of Latin America, Africa and Asia, in tortillas and tamales of Latin America, and in hominy of North America. And it's an important food for livestock everywhere it's grown, not to mention that it's now used as a source for bio-fuel (ethanol).

No doubt about it, corn is truly a-MAIZING.

Two Wheels?
After reviewing the 1925 article which is included in the August 6th post below, and delving into the //Raleigh Times// file folder at the park, yet another article was unearthed that mentions Yates Mill as having 2 waterwheels, among other mill lore. An article entitled "For 212 Years, This Mill Big Part of Wake Scene" that was published on April 15, 1957, includes some intruiging entries, which are listed below:

"Located on Rhamkatte Road, the old Yates Mill was once a big part of the southern scene...No one living today knows when the mill was built. Its extant records date back to 1745...The original building is still standing, the same dam provides its power. Much of its equipment is as old as the millhouse. At one time it had two large, wooden water wheels, one to operate the saw mill and the other to operate the grinding stones."

"J.D. Lee [Lea], the miller, has been making corn meal at Yates Mill since 1898. He explains that the grinding stones are not the original ones either. They were replaced in 1898...Lee says his father, who was also a miller and a millwright, told him the stones used for grinding came from England. He says he understands they were used for ship's ballast and it was in this country that they learned to use them for grinding stones."

"Lee says that in recent years 'the government men' had talked to him about 'putting in corn cleaners, enrichment feeders and such, but that just didn't make corn meal'...In describing his operation, he says the corn is shucked and inspected before it is brought to him to be ground. Then he inspects it and inserts one ear at a time in the corn sheller and only good, clean corn goes into the meal. 'That's real, wholesome meal and needs no enrichment', he says."

"He [Mr. Lea] only does custom grinding now and operates the mill about twice a week...When asked about the future of the old mill, Lee replies that he knows of no plan to renovate or preserve the mill and guesses it would eventually fall to pieces."

How we wish Mr. Lea could see his old mill now...

Old Newspaper Article Sheds Light on Mill and Pond History
Did you know that Yates Mill Pond was known as the "Lakewood Fishing Club" in the 1920s? According to a //Raleigh Times// article that was published in 1925, a sign for the fishing club had appeared on one of the trees at "Penny's Pond", as it was still known at the time. The fishing club had leased the pond from Professor Yates (presumably Robert E. Lee Yates, the son of Phares) and had stocked the pond with "six thousand black bass from Pete Murphy's fish hatchery in Marion". The article mentions that the pond also contained white perch, brim and chub at the time.

The //Raleigh Times// article also mentions some interesting items related to the mill. The author, Susan Iden (who supposedly wrote several feature articles on Wake County mill sites - *let's find these!*), interviewed "Misses Sarah and Susan Penny" who at the time were 74 and 73 years old - they were daughters of James Penny, one of the first owners of the mill. Among other many interesting tidbits that they shared, one paragraph is of especial interest, thus it is quoted entirely: "The same old mill house, that has served as grist mill for corn and wheat, as saw-mill, and as a wool carding place, when many of the farmers in Wake and surrounding counties raised sheep, is still standing on the east side of the lake, near the road which crosses a bridge over Steep Hill Creek. There is the same old rock dam and the big overshot wheels at the mill, and the remains of the wool carding machinery may be seen in the mill house. The saw-mill machinery has been cleared out as no lumber has been sawed there in a number of years."

The article goes on to say: "The old mill house has even served as a camping lodge for a party of graduate students from State College, who once with great enthusiasm started out to make a botanical and biological survey of all that section around the pond. Every invisible little protozoa in the pond, all the bugs and flowers, were to be listed, but it is said, that one night spent in the old mill house during the winter was sufficient to chill the enthusiasm, which hot bricks and tow sacks failed to keep warm. At any rate, there was no more overnight camping, but the snakes and snapping turtles had a hectic existence for some time while the pond was being used for research work." We wonder if this early survey was ever completed...does anyone care to try and find out?

You can read the entire 1925 article by clicking on the following PDF file:

Supersonic Divers?
Kingfishers inhabit shallow rivers or streams which are clean enough to support abundant small fish such as minnows and sticklebacks, but they also take aquatic insects, freshwater shrimps and tadpoles etc to top off their diet. An ideal fishing spot is a firm perch overlooking a clear, shallow pool of water (like Yates Mill Pond). Once the bird has located a suitable prey and assessed its depth, it dives (very fast). At the entry into water, its beak is opened and its eyes closed by the third eyelid. The bird is effectively blindfolded as it catches the fish. On return to the perch, the kingfisher repeatedly strikes the fish against the perch to kill it. Only then will the spines in the fins of some species such as sticklebacks relax to allow the bird to swallow it, head first. Each bird must eat at least its own bodyweight of fish each day.




 * If you hear a rattle-like sound while at the millpond, then you know you are hearing a Belted Kingfisher - a year round resident:**
 * [|BELTED KINGFISHER CALL]**(From the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology)

Special Swamp Species
Swamp Titi //(Cyrilla racemiflora)// is a common wetland shrub or small tree of the Coastal Plain which is rare in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. In the Triangle area, a few grow along the edges of Jordan Lake and Harris Lake, but a good number of shrubs also grow along the edges of Yates Mill Pond (which is one of the furthest locations to the west for this plant in North Carolina). Several shrubs can be easily viewed up-close off the east end of the Pond Boardwalk. Titi is quite showy in bloom, when it produces numerous racemes of white flowers (which earns it the name racemiflora - raceme + flower). The flowers usually attract bees, birds and other wildlife, but not butterflies.

**A Fishy Subject**
Do you know what kinds of fishes are found in and around the millpond? Here are a few of them...


 * [[image:yatesmillpark/Yellow-Bullhead.jpg width="225" height="77" align="center" caption="Bullhead Catfish (this bottom-dwelling fish was locally known as the "yellow-headed pond cat")"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/swampdart.gif width="132" height="44" align="center" caption="Swamp Darter (the cryptic coloring of this small fish gives it a natural camouflage)"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/bowfinbig.jpg width="230" height="77" align="center" caption="Bowfin (this primitive, ray-finned fish can gulp air making it common in swampy areas - beware its sharp bite!)"]] ||
 * [[image:yatesmillpark/bluegill_36422_7.jpg width="159" height="112" align="center" caption="Bluegill (this fish can be distinguished from other sunfish by the dark spot near its pectoral fins)"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/Green-eared_sunfish.jpg width="159" height="134" align="center" caption="Green Sunfish (this fish has a larger mouth than most sunfish and a thicker, longer body)"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/Pumpkinseed_Sunfish.jpg width="163" height="108" align="center" caption="Pumpkinseed Sunfish (this fish is very deep-bodied and laterally compressed, almost disk-like in shape)"]] ||
 * [[image:yatesmillpark/Black_Crappie.jpg width="196" height="132" align="center" caption="Black Crappie (this fish is common throughout the U.S. and will eat just about anything)"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/golden_shiner_1_.jpg width="153" height="63" align="center" caption="Golden Shiner (this small fish spends its days close to shore in large schools and feeds at night, so as to avoid being eaten by fish such as crappie and bass)"]] || [[image:yatesmillpark/largemouth_bass.jpg width="251" height="117" align="center" caption="Largemouth Bass (this typically olive green-colored fish is a fierce top-level predator of freshwater lakes and ponds)"]] ||

Going Dutch[[image:yatesmillpark/Dutch_door_(PSF).png width="168" height="140" align="right"]]
The vertically-split, first-floor entrance door of Historic Yates Mill is of a style known as the "Dutch Door". This style originated in Holland. It was first developed in the 17th century as an entry door and then became popular as a kitchen doorway as well. Before screen doors were invented, the Dutch door was a favorite of farmers, and of millers as well. The top could be opened to let the air in and the bottom closed to keep the animals and the children out.



**Cows as Weather Predictors?**
While listening to a Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling this morning (rain, it is a' coming!), one of the park visitors that passed by offered yet another bit of local folklore regarding wet weather predictors - he said you know rain is coming when the cows head to the woods to sit down.



**Wet Weather Predictors:**
Did you know that all of the following phenomenons in nature are predictors of rainy weather to come?



**POND-erings:**
Today Yates Mill Pond is about 20 acres in size. We are told that historically it may have once been as large as 40 acres but sedimentation in the upstream reaches of the pond likely caused its reduction in size. The average depth of the pond is only about 4-1/2 feet, although it's around 10-12 feet deep in the creek channel and 16 feet deep behind the dam. After Hurricane Fran breached the old dam and drained the pond in September 1996, Wake County removed about 40,000 cubic yards of sediment from the pond basin, thus deepening the pond for mill operations purposes, as well as for flood and pollution control. The pond was re-established in March 2000. It is part of a nutrient-sensitive, water supply watershed - the pond's upstream drainage area is about 3,300 acres. The waters from the pond flow into Swift Creek at Lake Benson and then into the Neuse River around the town of Smithfield.