Pic(k) of the Week: Old Grist Mill in early autumn afternoon

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

A restored 19th-century water-powered gristmill in Stone Mountain Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.

Photo taken 10 October 2025.

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About the mill

The mill was originally built in 1867, operating along a creek in Fannin County in north Georgia (near the current town of Ellijay). It fell into disuse and was eventually abandoned.

In 1965, the mill was dismantled and moved to Stone Mountain Park. There, the mill and its milling equipment, including the mill house and millstones, were reassembled. Additionally, a thirteen-foot-diameter wooden overshot water-wheel and a stone millrace were replicated and put in place.
— Scenic USA.
— Stone Mountain Park.

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Photographer's Notebook

The mill is a well-loved spot in the park, easily accessible from the perimeter road. So, it took some time to capture the image without any visitors in the frame. Fortunately, I finished just as a large group of school children arrived.

The entire scene featured deep contrasts between sunlight and shadow. To capture the full range of tones, I took four separate exposures, blending them later during the editing process. Wind gusts were strong, and some of the foliage shows motion blur. C'est la da-guerre-otype!

Per Merriam-Webster, "gristmill" is one word; the park spells it as two.

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Weather Report: American Tango (Vitouš/Zawinul)
Album: Mysterious Traveler (Label: Columbia, 1974)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Castillo de San Marcos

Looking north at daybreak, along the Matanzas River, at the Castillo de San Marcos.

In downtown (!) St. Augustine, Florida, USA. 7 September 2022.

The Castillo de San Marcos (Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida, built by the Spanish to protect the city. The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina (Spanish for "small shells"), which consists of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a sedimentary rock similar to limestone. Construction began in 1672 and was completed in 1695, though the structure would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries. Native Americans from Spain's nearby missions did most of the labor, with additional skilled workers brought in from Havana, Cuba.

— Wikipedia.

In 1924, the Castillo (then named Fort Marion) was declared a U.S. National Monument. In 1933, the National Park Service assumed responsibility. In 1942, the original name, Castillo de San Marcos, was restored.

— National Park Service pamphlet.

St. Augustine is a city on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States. The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: St. Augustine Lighthouse, at morning

Missed it by thaat much! Only two days earlier, the 'Buck' moon had been a full 'supermoon.'

Here, on 5 July 2023, the now waning gibbous moon sets, at sunrise, near the St. Augustine Lighthouse, in St. Augustine, Florida, USA.

The St. Augustine Light Station is a privately maintained aid to navigation and an active, working lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. It stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. The current lighthouse tower, original first-order Fresnel lens and the Light Station grounds are owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, Inc., a not-for-profit maritime museum.

The St. Augustine Light Station consists of the 165-foot (50 m) 1874 tower, the 1876 Keepers' House, two summer kitchens added in 1886, a 1941 U.S. Coast Guard barracks, and a 1936 garage that was home to a jeep repair facility during World War II. The site is also a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather station. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

The tower, however is the second lighthouse tower in St. Augustine, the first being lit officially by the American territorial government in May 1824 as Florida's first lighthouse. However, both the Spanish and the British governments operated a major aid to navigation here including a series of wooden watch towers and beacons dating from 1565.

— Wikipedia.

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