[acoustic blues]
♪
- When you come back in here, you go back to the old days.
You ain't getting in the computerized age,
we don't have none of that around here! [laughs]
I guess you'd say we was in the Stone Age!
- Well there are not a whole lot of traffic out here.
And it's easy to find, easy to get to.
I mean it's laid back country setting.
- [Narrator] Linney's Mill is located
in the New Hope Township, a few miles west of Union Grove.
This site had been a grist mill for over 200 years.
In 1937, W.L. Linney purchased the mill
and it's been in the Linney family ever since.
- He found this place for sale here, this mill place.
He started it up as a hobby, he liked tinkering with stuff.
He went to tinkering with it, and he run it on weekends,
Fridays and Saturdays, just for a hobby.
Now it's turned into full-time work.
- [Narrator] Thanks to three generations
of the Linney family, the mill has been
open to the public for the past 65 years.
It makes cornmeal and other items
by a waterwheel-powered grinding stone.
- Places like this are rare.
I mean they're really rare.
Without this place, people would kinda
just lose part of their history.
- For me personally, I like seeing old buildings.
I especially love to see old buildings
and old places being used.
And it's neat to see an operation
that's been going on for years and years.
It's great to see it still going.
- [Narrator] When you visit Linney's Mill,
you have to check out
the double-breasted overshot waterwheel.
- Well when they come in here,
they say wow I'm so glad that I've got here.
And the first thing that they want to go see
is I want to go see the waterwheel.
They think that's so fantastic to see that waterwheel roll,
for some reason or another.
- [Bill] First the water goes down the trough,
the raceway, to the wheel, and it dumps onto the wheel
and it's got buckets in that turns the wheel
and it's got a driveshaft through the mill.
We've got a cleaner in there that cleans your corn,
before we grind it into cornmeal
and makes it look a lot better.
Gets all the shaft out of it and everything.
- [Juanita] Corn goes into the grinder,
shoots back up through a hole in the bin.
Goes into the mixer, and then we mix
all our soda, salts, and all that into it to make cornmeal.
And then we bag it out.
- [Narrator] Visitors can also enjoy
everything the old general store has to offer.
- From the day one up here to now,
it's been like 50 years, it's still the same.
Same product, you don't have to worry about it changing,
or nobody messing with it or additives, whatever,
it's just still the same.
- The products we got now is the cornmeal,
grits, and pancake mixes and all that,
don't have no preservatives in it,
so therefore you have to put it
in your 'frigerator or your freezer to make it last longer.
But it's a lot healthier for you.
- [Narrator] Bill, also known as Smiley,
enjoys entertaining visitors with storytelling
and his Southern hospitality.
- Two old gentlemen, they were sitting in there
on the edge of the seat like this.
And they was listening, I said,
boys you'd better watch out.
I said, when this dentist says open wide
he ain't mean your mouth, he means your pocketbook.
And I left outta there! [laughing]
- I've been bringing my grandson up here
since he's two years old.
Had to wait for him to get out of diapers
before I brought him.
And he's 24 now.
And he likes the old ways and the old things and all.
I'm just an old roots family and all
and I just love, I've made time to come up here.
- In North Carolina, especially in this area here,
you've got so much history about the mountains,
the people that grow apples up here.
Billy's doing cornmeal and grits.
And it's just a unique place.
It's like a little town down here that's hidden away.
And it's a great place for people to come visit.
It's a good day trip, it's a good place to learn.
It's neat to get off the main road
and travel a little bit and go back in time.
[acoustic blues]
- Linney's Mill is at 4635 Linney's Mill Road
in Union Grove in Alexander County,
about 20 miles north of Statesville.
The mill is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.
For more information, you can call them at [704] 592-2075.
Or visit them online at linneysmill.com.
In the Duplin County town of Wallace,