Stony Brook Grist Mill — Attraction in Brewster

We had read about herring runs but never made it to one until this year. Went over April vacation with grandkids and we all enjoyed it very much. It’s quite a fascinating combination of nature and people working together. I’d recommend checking the website in advance to see if the herring are running. They usually run in April if it’s above 50 degrees. I believe they run back in June, we’re going to keep an eye on that. If you go make sure you go to both sides of the property across the street from each other. On side has a bridge, a picnic area on the hill, several “ladders” for the herring to jump on their way to the pond, which is across the street. Be very careful crossing as this is a tricky road situation. The mill, brook & pond are located at the bottom of a little valley in the road and it curves at the same time. Once you safely cross the street, follow the brook up hill, to the last “ladder” and watch the herring as they try to make the last leap into the pond to later spawn this spring. It’s fascinating to watch some make it and some don’t. Some that make it appear to get carried back down if they don’t swim away from the rushing brook fast enough. Kids can walk through a couple of paths up on a hill next to the pond and hang out on some large boulders adjacent to the pond.

The only thing we couldn’t do was go inside the mill to see how the water wheel worked. It wasn’t open but we gave the kids our own little lesson on how it works and hope to get back someday when it’s open. This is truly just one more reason when the Cape is so special. There is so much more to the cape than just the beach and this is...

Stony Brook Watermill is a wonderful place to visit. It is located in the vicinity of the Brewser Windmill so Stony Brook makes a visit to Brewster a two for one. The mill building is a one-story easily identifiable to the left. It has a basement that accesses the waterwheel power shaft and the gears that transfer the power to the first floor where the hopper and mill stones are located. The building is covered with wooden shingles, and the property surrounding the mill displays many types of trees, bushes and flowers.

Continuing on our journey around the mill property, this photograph views the wooden sluice that when functioning carries the water that is channeled here when the sluice gate is opened. The water flows onto the wooden waterwheel which is located at the end of this sluice on the front side of the mill building.

This is one of my favorite features of water mills, the waterwheel. This one was not functioning the day we visited Stony Brook but the setting is none-the-less impressive. The large wheel is about 15 feet in diameter and the wooden paddles that the water falls upon are about 4 feet wide, maybe a little wider. This type of waterwheel is called an overshot wheel because the water hits the wheel from the top and pushes the wheel forward. The wheel has a shaft at its center. This shaft turns as the wheel moves and inside the basement the energy is redirected through gears and cogs to turn the great mill stones on the first floor of the building. The stone work and the wheel well are...

I finally got to visit the Stony Brook Gristmill and Museum when it was open! (I've also been here in late spring when the herring were running.) It was a great experience to see the waterwheel turning and to see corn being ground into corn meal. The guides were friendly and informative and talked about the history of the mill and the milling process while they were grinding corn and packaging it for sale to visitors. I thought the millstones were running at a low speed, but the guides explained the decide how fast to run the mill based on how much corn meal they need to grind. They increased the speed of the millstones when several people stopped in to buy the larger bags of corn meal, so it was interesting to see them open a gate and let more water through so that the waterwheel and millstones would turn faster. On the second floor (accessible by walking outside to the rear of the mill building) there were more displays and a large loom set up where a woman was demonstrating weaving. She had a very interactive demonstration where she had children who were visiting the mill sit beside her and help her weave cloth. Even though the herring weren't running in late summer, it was relaxing to walk along the herring run and to the mill pond while listening to the flowing water. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Stony Brook...