This project is about creating a work of art, solving a 300 year old mystery and preserving something from the past for future study. We want to save some of that past and in the process solve the mystery of "Carrie H" and who loved her enough to take the time to engrave her name into the underside of a three ton capstone on a dam built around 1710.

     A beautiful, full color 17th century style map showing the locations of mills and mill remains in Wake County, North Carolina (Raleigh) and a digital photography archive are the actual work products of this project and our legacy to future generations. Even if you don't live here, you could be part of the team that makes this information available forever. Every backer will receive a digital version of the map, suitable for printing, framing, and leaving to YOUR future generations.

     Water powered flour or grist mills were once important community centers and the earliest example of harnessing the natural power of falling water to create the basic staples of our diet: flour and corn mill. Everyone has seen a road or street with the word "mill" as part of the name. Revolutionary and Civil War battles were fought to gain control of them; some of them were converted to produce gun powder during times of war. Artists have rendered them in paintings for hundreds of years.

     These mills sustained us but, like many things, were quickly obsoleted once electricity became widely available and large, commercial milling operations began. The water wheel mills were abandoned during the forward march of technology. However, if you search along watercourses off the beaten path you can still find relics of another time: the silent, dignified remains of these old servants.

     There is a national movement to breach and remove old mill dams. Some of these dams are beautiful works of art and we should document as many of them as possible before they are destroyed. The very methods used to build these dams were amazing and the craftsmanship superb. Something should be left behind to tell their stories. Some of these dams have very interesting stories indeed.

     Help me bring to completion a long term project started in 1978 to locate, map and photograph the remains of water mills built in Wake County, North Carolina as early as 1710. We have already located 100 of approximately 170 sites; time is of the essence as they are quickly being destroyed to make room for shopping centers and housing developments. Sadly many of the known locations are falling victim to vandalism. 

     These sites are fragile and in some cases only a few stones of the foundation remain. In other cases there are nearly complete mills hidden in remote locations. This project has been ongoing almost 35 years and is now at the point where we really need to create the products from this research: the map, a searchable image archive and an atlas and other guide materials. And maybe, most importantly of all, we need to find the answer to that one intriguing question: Who was Carrie H?

     Help me produce something that will provide a permanent repository of information for future generations of researchers and especially children who will never have the opportunity to see one of these early industrial wonders.

     And in the process help me solve the mystery of "Carrie H".

And finally-she was important to him. We found her name engraved on the underside of the capstone of a dam built around 1710. Her name was "Carrie H". I wonder if she ever knew.....

Thanks for supporting this project.