Blue Bag Media
Bears Mill offers history and art in a natural setting

GREENVILLE – The flow of grain is important… too fast? Not fine enough. Too slow? Burned. So they had to pay attention to the flow of the grain when the French buhr stones were grinding the flour…

“That’s where the phrase ‘keep your nose to the grindstone’ came from,” said Bears Mill ‘Ranger’ Terry Clark. The former co-owner (with his wife Julie) had once referred to himself as the Mayor of Bears Mill, but opted over recent years to stick with ‘Ranger.’ He is one of the few people in the state who can run a water-powered stone-grinding flour mill, and Bears Mill is one of the few still operating in Ohio.

Clark conducts tours of the mill Saturdays at 2 p.m. (call 548-5112 to confirm schedule), providing detailed information about how the mill was built and powered, as well as anecdotes such as where the phrase “get the lead out” came from… Holding an 1832 long gun costing about $6 in 1834, he said people would put extra lead balls in their mouths so they could reload faster. Sometimes they would swallow one… the next day “they would get the lead out.”

Buhr stones cost about $6,000 a pair in 1849 when the mill was built and were only available in France. It was a 2-year journey but worth it for their abrasive and porous qualities, resulting in a slow, cool grinding process. This prevents unnecessary loss of nutrients, something...

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