by Joe (dad)
Since we ended up with a season membership for Michilimackinac State Park, we were able to visit the Mill Creek Discovery Center where there is a mill dating back to the 1700s. The water-powered mill has been rebuilt over the creek roughly in its original location and according to drawings of the mill that were recovered. The water-powered saw was truly ingenious in how it used water not only to make a saw blade go up and down, but also to gradually move the sled holding the logs into the saw blade. The sawing process was completely automated! The sled even had a reverse gear to get the sled back to the starting position to make the next cut. Many of the gears and shafts were common in Davinci's engineering designs from even before the 1700s.
William will surely remember the mill since he volunteered to operate the levers and dials of the mill in helping the park ranger actually cut some wood, but everyone else will probably remember the zip line and climbing wall we also got to do at the park. We made an interpretive walk through the woods and crossed a high bridge to see the canopy of the forest up close and personal and since we were up in the canopy anyway, we rode the zip line down to the creek level before heading to the climbing wall. Michael and Mariana got to take part of a zip line too at the playground in the park....Mariana wasn't quite big enough for the adventure package and Michael had already spent his allowance and couldn't buy the adventure ticket that included the bridge, zip line and climbing wall.
Since we ended up with a season membership for Michilimackinac State Park, we were able to visit the Mill Creek Discovery Center where there is a mill dating back to the 1700s. The water-powered mill has been rebuilt over the creek roughly in its original location and according to drawings of the mill that were recovered. The water-powered saw was truly ingenious in how it used water not only to make a saw blade go up and down, but also to gradually move the sled holding the logs into the saw blade. The sawing process was completely automated! The sled even had a reverse gear to get the sled back to the starting position to make the next cut. Many of the gears and shafts were common in Davinci's engineering designs from even before the 1700s.
William will surely remember the mill since he volunteered to operate the levers and dials of the mill in helping the park ranger actually cut some wood, but everyone else will probably remember the zip line and climbing wall we also got to do at the park. We made an interpretive walk through the woods and crossed a high bridge to see the canopy of the forest up close and personal and since we were up in the canopy anyway, we rode the zip line down to the creek level before heading to the climbing wall. Michael and Mariana got to take part of a zip line too at the playground in the park....Mariana wasn't quite big enough for the adventure package and Michael had already spent his allowance and couldn't buy the adventure ticket that included the bridge, zip line and climbing wall.