I've had a chance to re-check the comments on the Victoria pix (see last Thursday). It seems that every time we feature photos of the Rockland area it generates a lot of comments, many from former residents. Yesterday a Pasty Cam visitor, Robert C Wetton, sent me this historical photo of the old stamp mill approximately above the area we were at the other other night. It's really neat, because it likely powered by the ingenious Taylor Air Compressor, a kind of venturi valve device hewn into the rock hundreds of feet below. In the upper right is the wooden flume that carried water from the dam to the power plant over a mile in total length. Robert's dad worked a crane for demolishing the plant in the 30's, and he also was in charge of chinking the leaks in the flume, of which there were many. UP Power replaced the flume with a metal one last year.

My Dad worked there when they tore down the complex back in the late 1930s. I can just vaguely recall that we stayed in one of those old homes, I probably was only 5 or 6 years old. By the way, he's pushing 97 this year and still remembers things from way back then. The photo, of course, is from his collection.

Looks similiar to a smaller stamp mill located on the Eagle River just above the town of Eagle River. There was a mine at the top of the hill above the cemetary and that mill apparently served the mine. Looks like possibly one person designed all the mills.

IS IT FENCED SO KID'S CAN NOT GET INTO TROBLE THERE OR HURT??

Doris, the last time I was at the old Phoenix mill site and around the mines there, all the mines were capped or bulldozed shut. That was a couple of years ago so something could have eroded in. All that is left of the mill is foundations and there isn't any more risk there than the natural rocks and windfalls surrounding it. Not many kids get back in there, the Phoenix mill is about a mile upstream of the town of Eagle River.

Doris and Paul, don't be concerned about the old mill. When I was a small boy there was an old mill building on the Eagle River between Phoenix and Eagle River -- not the Phoenix Mill. Since I played around it in 1930 without hurting myself and since the building has completely disappeared and the mine shaft has been filled with poor-rock I'm sure we don't have to worry about that.

THAT IS NOT A FENCE IN THE PICTURE, THOSE ARE THE SUPPORTS FOR A LARGE WOODEN PIPE.