Millstone Found at Cleveland Park Site

CLEVELAND, TENNESSEE—According to a report in The Cleveland Banner, a large millstone was discovered near Taylor Spring in downtown Cleveland, the site where the city’s first residents are thought to have settled. A city public works crew found the stone while picking up litter and debris near the spring, and hauled it away as garbage. But a local resident noticed what had happened and contacted a historian, who alerted the crew’s director to the potential value of the find. City historian Bob George said that although it appears that the stream and spring at the site are not powerful enough to turn a millstone, there may have been dams at one time to increase the force of the water. He added that millstone may have belonged to the Cleveland Milling Company, which owned the property in 1906. To read more about historical archaeology in the United States, go to "Empire of Glass."