Sometimes on the side of the road there are historic places that almost everyone passes by without realizing they're still present. While out on our drive my guy and I stopped to revisit one, the remains of a sugar mill from 1825.
The only thing that protects the place is a chain-link fence, through which I took these pics. It's incredible to stand so close to something so old.
Compared to modern factories the ruins seem so small, barely larger than a house. Local lore tells us while using the first steam-powered cane-crushing mill in the region, Dummitt produced sugar and rum at the mill with the help of approximately 40 local Indians and 100 slaves. In turn, the Indians traded fresh game for the mill’s products.
It's a very quiet spot. Each time I go there I try to imagine 140 people working at the mill, most not by choice.
This is another place for which I want to write a story one day; perhaps a mystery of something found at the mill by a slave. It has that kind of slightly eerie presence when you look at it, a ruin still concealing an old secret.
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