Heite, Edward F.

1994

Cultural Resources Investigations near Moore's Lake, in Connection with Widening of U. S. Route 113A, Dover and North Murderkill Hundreds, Kent County, Delaware.

Prepared by Heite Consulting, Camden, Delaware. Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series No. 113.

The general area around the historic milling and commercial complex known as Moore's Lake or Mount Vernon Mills originally developed in the late 1600s as an agricultural neighborhood with a gristmill at its center. The first mill at the seat may have been built in 1685. A sawmill and gristmill were in place by 1772. Henry Moore bought the mill seat in 1858 and 1859 and began immediately to extensively rebuild the mills, using the newest roller technology. Various modifications and additions to the mill complex were made in the following 70 years. In 1936, the seat was bought by the State of Delaware, which built a fish hatchery and rearing ponds. During the past half century, suburban development has spread across the project area. Today, the complex includes a dam, a headrace, part of the mill, a dwelling, state fish-rearing ponds, boat ramps, and a footbridge. The original industrial purpose of the site is still evident, but most of the standing structures belong to the post-industrial period in the site's history. DelDOT Archaeology Series No. 113 presents the results of a cultural resource survey along U. S. Route 113A, between U. S. Route 13 and State Route 10 in Kent County, Delaware, where the project corridor passes through the Moore's Lake complex. The investigation included background research, surface survey, and subsurface testing. No important archaeological resources were located in the project area. However, as a whole, the Moore's Lake complex is recognized as an important historic resource.

As context for the report, the author discusses the mill seat as a cultural resource property type. A mill seat consists of a power source, usually a dam, a headrace, a tailrace, a waste gate, granaries, housing, and miscellaneous associated outbuildings and roads. Many mill seats also include public highways and bridges built across the mill dam. The dam was often the largest and most expensive part of a mill system. As in the case of Moore's Mill, a dam might stand a considerable distance upstream from the mill. In some systems, there might be several mills or several dams, all interconnected through a system of raceways and gates. Millers often built ponds upstream to store extra water to provide steady power to the mill. The power of the mill was determined to a great degree by the head, or the elevation, of the water. A water wheel or turbine is turned by the force of gravity impelling water across it. Power systems use different methods to convert the energy of falling water into rotary energy that powers rotating mill machinery. If a stream has sufficient flow and head, it is said to be a good mill seat. A copious but relatively level stream like Isaac's Branch, which powered three mill seats in two miles, including Moore's Mill, would have been best suited to turbine or undershot wheels, which depend upon flow and do not need high heads. Mill seats typically were occupied for a hundred or more years, often by successions of mills and millers. Not uncommonly, millers rebuilt their plants to improve the power source, the machinery, or the variety of products they could process.