paddling the salt, hunting historic tide mills

[el-bagr]

Hey all! I've been having fun paddling the coast of Maine looking for history and adventure. One of my pet projects is to visit the sites of tide mills. With today's focus on green renewable energy, it can be easy to forget that there were once hundreds of tide-powered mills and developments along the New England coast. Finding these places involves looking at old maps and histories, modern satellite imagery, and plenty of paddling the tidewater.

I've written about a few of these sites in my blog. Who has suggestions for other areas to visit?

 

[AMF]

There was one here in the swamps of South Jersey - in Salem County on the Salem River where it flows (or used to flow until DuPont diverted it) thru Mannington Meadows. The mill was on what was known as the Abbott Farm; there is still a "Tide Mill Road" that used to extend on a dike thru the meadow and across the river.

 

[Brambor]

very interesting blog

Thanks for posting.

 

[el-bagr]

AMF, is this the location you're talking about?
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.58803...9.58763,-75.46001,tide mill road\, salem\, nj

I don't know that area very well. Do you know if the millworks were on the outlet of that south-draining lagoon? It all looks very tidal, but I don't see many places that look like the classic tidal millpond, unless there's been some filling over the years -- or unless there was a dam across the Salem River where it flows out of Mannington Meadows?

Call me a nerd, but I have a lot of fun looking at maps and paddling around, trying to understand how available resources drove people to settle where they did.

I'm sure there were plenty of tide mills in Massachusetts, too.

 

[Brambor]

Mr.Bagr

How do these tide mills coexist with the migration of the Atlantic Salmon?

 

[AMF]

AMF, is this the location you're talking about?
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.58803...9.58763,-75.46001,tide mill road\, salem\, nj

That's it. The "lagoon" area used to be diked farmland, up into the late 1930's or so. The Salem River was tidal for a good ways up - there was a road extending all the way across, & the mill presumably was located on the main channel there. If you look on the west side of the meadow, you will see a lane heading south that just ends. That's where the road connected on the other side.

I've paddled there area, and there is practically no trace at all of where it used to be.

amf

 

[el-bagr]

Fascinating stuff. AMF, your description sounds a lot like most of the Maine sites I've found.

Brambor, good question about fish passage. These mills were built hundreds of years ago (which raises a good question: when was the last new tide mill built in the US?) when it may have even been viewed as a good thing if fish got stuck below the dam. Today, every single tide mill site I've visited has had its dam breached, meaning that the fish can now theoretically swim upriver.

 

[el-bagr]

I've added another tide mill account to my blog: this time, the tide mills of Arrowsic, Maine.