Watkins Woolen Mill State Park, Lawson, MO

Where in the world is Ginger? I volunteered and was selected for a supervisory detail in the Kansas District Office for the month of April. The detail was full of challenges and many rewards. The following posts are photograph stories of my adventures in Kansas and Missouri. I'm going to start the posts with a woolen mill located in Lawson, MO. After taking the guided tour through the mill, I have a greater appreciation for textiles and SHEEP.

"The Watkins Woolen Mill is among the best preserved example of a mid-19th century woolen mill in the United States. Its variety of machinery for preparing, spinning, and weaving--some of it modified during its life at the mill to improve its performance--presents an unsurpassed cross-section of textile technology at that time and is the finest collection of early textile machines in situ in North America. The mill was designed and built by Waltus L. Watkins (1806-1884), a machinist and master weaver from Frankfort, Kentucky."

SHEEPIES!!!

The woolen mill is the brick building in the back.

Ken next to the mill's wood-fire boiler. The boiler provided 100-pounds of pressure to power the mill's 60-horsepower slide-valve steam engine that ran the mill's looms and machines.

During the process, wool is fed into a picker, which prepares the wool for carding by pulling it apart into small, fluffy bits.

Me carding wool by hand.

Carding machines untangle individual fibers and reduce sheets of wool into a continuous strand (it was explained that these machines were adjusted while running and led to missing fingertips).

Wool spun into yarn.

Yarn ready to be woven into cloth.

Ken working the cloth press.

The general store within the mill.

The Scalehouse - wagonloads of wool and grain were weighed prior to going to the factory or the gristmill.