If you look upstream from the bridge spanning the Gaspereau River in White Rock, you can see the area once occupied by Benjamin's grist and feed mill. The late Raleigh Eagles recalled many details about the mill when I interviewed him for this newspaper in the early 70s. I kept the notes of the interview and they are incorporated in the following two-part story on the mill. During the latter part of the 19th century White Rock was the site of a bustling enterprise known as the S. P. Benjamin Grist and Feed Mill. The mill was built along the banks of the Gaspereau River in 1885 and operated for 15 years.
Little trace remains of the mill today.
The site where the mill sprawled along the Gaspereau River just above the highway bridge has filled in over the years and there are few signs to indicate that a major industry once operated there. Mr. Eagles recalls that for a decade or so after the mill closed one or two small buildings remained to mark the site but these were swept away during a spring flood. While time has erased most traces of the Benjamin mill, many long-time residents of the area remember it well. Eagles, who was 80 when I interviewed him, recalls walking past the mill when he was a schoolboy in White Rock. His father and brother worked in the mill.