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Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek ...
Cedar Creek is one of the largest tributaries to the Lewis River and enters the Lewis at River Mile (RM) 15.7. The Cedar Creek Grist Mill, built in 1876, is located less than 2.5 miles upstream on the right bank of Cedar Creek. A covered bridge crosses Cedar Creek at this location.
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Cedar Creek at mouth, looking downstream towards the Lewis River, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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Cedar Creek at Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Cedar Creek just days after massive typhoon-enhanced rain came through.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek at Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Cedar Creek just days after massive typhoon-enhanced rain came through.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek at Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Cedar Creek just days after massive typhoon-enhanced rain came through.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill ...
The Cedar Creek Grist Mill, located on Cedar Creek just upstream of its confluence with the Lewis River, was built in 1876 and is still operational, grinding grains as needed.
George Woodham and his two sons built the water powered mill in 1876. Families throughout north Clark County brought their grain to the mill to be ground into flour or livestock feed. Throughout the next 100 years the mill changed hands numerous times. The flume was built during the 1880s, the water wheel was replaced with a turbine in 1886, additions to the building were added and remove, and the mill was used for a variety of occupations throughout the years. In the late 1950s the Washington State Fisheries Department bought the property, removed the old dam and built a fish ladder. The Fort Vancouver Historical Society leased the mill in 1961.
"The Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a large, rectangular, braced frame building with gable roof and sheathed with vertical board and batten siding. Frame joinery is mortise and tenon with dowels. Two shed extensions appear at the west and east sides. The structure itself sits on a rock outcropping on the north side of Cedar Creek.
The floor joists in the main section of the building are eight inch logs, 26 feet long and let into 12 inch log sills. The north sill rests on the rock outcrop; the south sill was supported originally by nine-inch square hewn timbers some 20 feet long and reached almost to the level of the creek bed. These timbers were replaced at some time by the present iron pipes. The eastern shed exterior is supported by hewn timber fitted into naturally occuring pockets in the rock wall and a reinforced concrete foundation has been added under the west wall of the opposite shed. An upper story or loft exists in the main structure and it and the mail floor are fitted with one and one quarter inch thick tongue and groove boards.
The shed on the west end served as a blacksmith shop. The 14x16 foot addition is a half story in height, is sheathed with the same material as the main structure and has a square window opening on the creek side. It is roofed with corrugated iron. The 16x25 foot shed on the east end is also roofed with corrugated iron but is sheathed only on the creek side, the remaining two sides being left open.
The original water wheel was removed in 1886 and replaced with a turbine to power the milling machinery. A double walled and hooped shaft about three feet in diameter was built extending from the main floor to the creek bed; a flume was let into the top of the shaft. The flume was 80 feet long and brought water from a log dam across the creek.
Aside from the removal of the wheel and the conversion to turbine, the mill appears little altered since its construction. The roof was originally cedar shakes rather than metal and the stones and other milling equipment are no longer in the building. ... The last remains of the dam which supplied water to the mill disappeared in the early 1950s."
Source:
U.S. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 1975, "Cedar Creek Grist Mill", (Building - #75001844).
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The Cedar Creek Grist Mill was listed on the Clark County Heritage Register in 1986 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 (Building - #75001844).
Today the Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a working museum, showing visitors the inside workings of a grist mill of that time period. A covered bridge spanning Cedar Creek was updated and completed in 1994.
The 11.8 acre site is owned by the Washington State Fish & Wildlife Department and includes the mill, trails, and parking.
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek and the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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Grain, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Covered Bridge ...
The covered bridge spanning Cedar Creek at the Grist Mill was built in 1994. It is 85 feet long and 22 feet wide.
According to "BridgeHunter.com" website (2016):
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"The Cedar Creek Bridge at the site of the Grist Mill is a housed timber Howe truss bridge built in 1994 replacing a 1934 vintage exposed timber pony truss. The bridge was constructed with the housed truss span to complement the historic setting of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill site, which was served by a covered bridge prior to the 1934 exposed timber truss bridge."
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Covered Bridge, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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Cedar Creek Covered Bridge, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Covered Bridge, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Covered Bridge, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Cedar Creek Covered Bridge and Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Flume ...
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Flume, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Flume, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken October 19, 2016.
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Flume, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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Flume, Cedar Creek Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington.
Image taken July 4, 2005.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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