Guided Mill Tours Now Available at Historic Yates Mill County Park

10/12/2006

The "wheels are turning" at Historic Yates Mill County Park!

Guided mill tours are now available at the park, 4620 Lake Wheeler Road, and can be reserved in advance. Step back in time at Yates Mill and experience first hand the traditional way that corn was ground into meal, and wheat into flour, using waterpower, simple machines and large millstones.

Half-hour corn-grinding tours are offered on:

• Saturdays, October 14, and November 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Sundays, October 15, and November 19, from 1-4 p.m.

One-hour Mill Heritage tours are offered on:

• Saturdays, October 7, 21, 28, and November 4 & 11, starting at 2 p.m.
• Sundays, October 8, 22, 29, and November 5 & 12, starting at 2 p.m.

Mill Heritage tours are also available to organized groups on Wednesdays. Please call the park for more details.

All tours are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and there is a maximum of 15 visitors per tour. Tour reservations can be made in advance or on the day of the tour, if space is available. A registration fee is required for all tours ($5 for adults, $3 for children age 16 and under, and $3 for seniors age 60 and over).

Volunteers from the nonprofit group Yates Mill Associates will be on hand during corn grinding weekends to sell genuine stone-ground cornmeal from Yates Mill, as well as mill-related merchandise. Please note that all mill tour and merchandise sale proceeds benefit the mill’s ongoing maintenance, operation, and long-term preservation.

Historic Yates Mill County Park, a 174-acre park located just five miles from downtown Raleigh, opened to the public in May. The park offers visitors an "Escape from the Everyday Grind" through its natural environs and its historic resources, namely Yates Mill (circa 1756) – Wake County’s last remaining gristmill, which has been fully restored.

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