The discovery of the boiler indicated the rest of the old Phoenix mill had to be near by. In fact it was much closer then we had realized. Looking uphill from where the old boiler now sat we found ourselves looking up at the clean lines of a massive stone wall towering above out heads. Its placement perched along the edge of the hillside betrayed its purpose rather quickly – we had found the old mill. Or at least what little was left of it.

We were standing at the corner of a massive foundation wall skirting the side of the hillside. Unlike most ruins we find it was built entirely out of a thin slate like material. Though rare, we had seen this type of rock before. It was the same type of rock used to build the Copper Falls mill foundation. Interestingly the whole thing looked like it was laid dry, without the help of any mortar or bonding agent. Granted the flat nature of the rocks helped considerably towards this but it was still impressive.

This was the foundation’s tallest point, which would have supported the mill’s northeast wall. From here the wall merged back into the hillside some dozen or so feet back, tapering off in size as it did so. The north wall shared the same fate, tapering off as well as it met up with the hillside. At their shortest the foundation walls were only a foot or so in height. Interestingly the whole foundation was very narrow, only 25 or so feet in width.

Making our way to the top of the foundation we found ourselves standing atop a large flat piece of ground. Apparently the foundation served primarily as a retaining wall, in order to create a large flat surface along the steep hillside. Knowing that a mill usually consisted of several terraced levels, we took a look around to find them.

The top of the foundation was very overgrown, but by making our way to the back of the structure we were able to find the next “step” in the mill’s terraced floor plan. This wall shared the same slate-like construction material as the main foundation wall, but here it was much shorter.

And finally we were able to find the third step in the mill, this one just a dozen or so feet back from the second step we had just found. This one was much more rough in make-up, built out of what looked like large lake stones. I would guess that this level contained the mill’s rock bins, with the second step belonging to the stamp batteries themselves. Everything else would have fit atop the main foundation we found first.

Besides the walls there was very little else left of the old mill that we could discern. Of course the whole site was horrendously overgrown and hard to navigate so we could have missed something. One thing we couldn’t miss – and one thing we still yet had to find – was the remains of the building responsible for the deposited boiler down along the river bed. That would be the boiler house…

To Be Continued…