Wolcott Mill

Wolcott Mill is among the oldest mills in Michigan. Built in the mid-1840s by the Arad Freeman family, early Macomb County settlers, it passed through several owners before Frederick Wolcott purchased it in 1878. The Wolcott family upgraded the business as technology changed. In 1881, the breastshot waterwheel was replaced by a turbine. The millstones where changed to more efficient metal rollers in 1890 and again improved in 1917. Waterpower was used until the mill closed, but it was supplemented by electric power beginning in the 1920s. Declining business caused the Wolcott family to sell the mill in 1967. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks acquired the mill in 1979 for use as an historic interpretive site.