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The Mill at Anselma, West Pikeland, PA, 2009.
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Imageof the exterior mill.

Credit: Courtesy of Charles Hardy, III

Constructed in the late 1740s, the Mill at Anselma is the nation’s best surviving example of a colonial water-powered custom grist mill. In the foreground is the mill pond, which feeds water to the top of its overshot water wheel. This generates more power than an undershot wheel–placed directly in a fast-moving creek or river–by utilizing the additional force of gravity and weight of the water itself. In operation until 1934 and then reopened in 2004, Anselma includes three pairs of grinding stones, two of which still function. Today, the mill continues to grind wheat and corn, which it sells, during monthly milling demonstrations.

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