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Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor Driving Tour - Fulton County
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Burnt Cabins Gristmill, located in Burnt Cabins, Pennsylvania, includes a gristmill and house built in 1840. It is part of the Burnt Cabins Historic District. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, this site still produces quality flour at the historic gristmill


Photo of Gristmill, 1992

Plant, Sky, Property, Building

Photo of Gristmill, 2009

Cloud, Sky, Plant, Building

Burnt Cabins Grist Mill has been located at this site since 1840. One of the oldest buildings in the village of Burnt Cabins, it is a water-driven mill that uses the power of water to turn the waterwheels that move the machinery to grind the grain. In the past, the mill ground grain for products for humans or for animal feed. Nowadays, the mill grinds food entirely for human consumption. The historic grist mill promotes the history heritage timber transportation structures” and that the two projects “integrate local timber use, historic timber detailing and craftsmanship, and modern timber treatment.”

Over the years the mill has been threatened by construction plans for both the South Penn Railroad (a proposed 19th century railroad that never was) and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 20th century. Both times the grist mill was saved.

The Blattenberger family purchased the mill in 1969. After many grants for restoration, much of the exterior and the inner workings of the mill have been restored.

The National Park Service has recognized the importance of the town of Burnt Cabins (which received its name after a previous settlement of colonial settlers in the same area was destroyed by the provincial government of Pennsylvania in the 1750s to keep the peace between the European colonists and Native American tribes in the area) and its grist mill by placing each of them on the National Register of Historic Places: the grist mill in 1980, and the town itself in 1998.

 

Jalowitz, Alan. Burnt Cabins: Against the Odds, Pennsyvalnia Center for the Book. September 21st 2010. Accessed December 31st 2021. Burnt Cabins: Against the Odds.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burnt_Cabins_Gristmill_Property.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burtcabinsmill.jpg