Millstone

The idiom: to have a millstone around your neck, means to have a responsibility that is hard to escape from.  And here is a millstone.  You would not go far carrying this one.

 

Old Mill site

The breached mill dam and a grind stone are all that are left of the Company Mill on Crabtree Creek in Umstead State Park.  You can see the wall of the dam on the left of the picture, the rest has been washed away.   Here's a small history of the area.

Back to the grindstone

There were a lot of mills in Raleigh on the little creeks.  This grindstone sits at the entrance to the visitor center at Umstead State Park.  The area once was inhabited by small farms and mills.  The land was depleted and the farms were mostly abandoned.  In 1934 the CCC bought the land and made it into a recreation area.  Later it was bought by the state.  It has a darker past, at one time it was 2 parks, one for African Americans, and one for Whites.  The two entrances to the park still do not connect.  Wikipedia has some of the history here.

Grindstone

Keeping your nose to the grindstone doesn't seem like such a good idea when you actually see one.  Even worse would be to have this millstone around your neck.  This huge stone was used to grind meal at the Yates Mill.