Steve Frost, 72, with The Little Beaver Historical Society, shows some of the processing equipment inside McConnells Mill State Park gristmill that the group is restoring on Tuesday. Not all of the equipment will be repaired, only enough to enhance tours and education. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

SLIPPERY ROCK TWP, Lawrence County — The gristmill at McConnells Mill State Park once produced up to 2,000 pounds of grain per load and distributed tons of product to a 10-mile radius.

While the mill probably won’t ever produce that much grain again, volunteer workers are trying to get it renovated to the point where tour guides at the mill can demonstrate how the turbines worked.

Stephen Frost, a “display animation” historian from Darlington, started the project after his son, Michael Frost, a park ranger at Ohiopyle, Fayette County, said it likely could be restored to the point where the machinery would work as it is supposed to.

“We’re not going to mill anything, but we are going to make it work like it worked,” Frost said. “A lot (of equipment) is where it would have been; we just choose what we want to work on.”

Members of the Little Beaver Historical Society have been working on the mill every Tuesday for the past three years. Frost said he may not live to see the project completed, but he and the other seven or eight consistent workers wanted to get a restoration started.

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