Photo Description During the 40s and 50s, when our family traveled to Louisburg to visit the aunts, we would take the longer route and ride by Laurel Mill. I remember stopping and going inside the mill, watching the corn being ground and walking around and listening to the water run over the dam. I developed a love for old mills. The road that goes by the mill has a long steep hill before approaching the bridge. As a small child, it scared me to cross the bridge in our old Model A Ford Coupe that would get the shakes now and then. I was afraid that old Ford would have a spell and shake like a dog on the old rickety wooden bridge and it would collapse. In the 70s, it was snowing and the creek was frozen. A vehicle coming down the snow covered hill went out of control, skidded sideways, went through the bridge railing and landed upside down in the middle of the creek. Only the tires were visible. A gentleman that lived nearby was at the creek getting a bucket of water for his house. It was so cold his water pipes were frozen. He saw the accident when it happened and jumped into the ice covered creek and pulled 4 children out of the vehicle. Unfortunately he was not able to save the driver from drowning. I imagined it looked the same after the snow we had as the temperatures have been below freezing for a week and down in the single digits at night. When the roads cleared, we took a road trip and went to check out Laurel Mill. I wanted a picture of it with the creek frozen. We found it looking much like it did the day of the bad accident. I don't know how old the mill is but history dates it to the mid 1800's. The mill is not open to the public but it can be viewed and photographed from the road and the bridge.
Laurel Mill is located in Franklin County, approximately 30 miles north of Raleigh. It feels like home to me.
Photo Location
Franklin County, NC
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This is a photo of Laurel Mill taken in 2009, just after it snowed. It was not as cold then and the water was not frozen.
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