A historic site nested in on the banks of the Credit River, the Barber Mill is a rare example of pre-Confederation industrial works. First built by the four Barber brothers, the water-powered paper mill reportedly became the largest wallpaper factory in North America less than a decade after it's inception. These days, however, the mill has been stripped of most of it's equipment, and sits idle as the structures slowly crumble around it, ravaged by the passage of time.

Over the years, the four Barber brothers passed control of the mill to relative JR Barber, who set about steadily expanding the mill operations. This proved to be an issue towards the end of the 19th century; the water power was no longer sufficient to run the machinery. JR solved this issue by building a dynamo further down the river to generate electricity, which was then conducted back to the mill itself. Impressively, this was the first time such a feat had occurred in Canada. JR was also on the forefront of the changing times; his addition of a pulp mill to the facilities allowed for paper to be made from straw rather than clothes and rags as was common at the time; eventually the straw was replaced with the wood pulp.

In 1913, the mill was converted to municipal power, and the dynamo was closed. By 1918, the building was abandoned completely; left to rot in the forest. While I didn't make my way over to it, it still stands in the woods, albeit no longer with a roof.

The Mill was sold to the Provincial Paper Company in 1911, and eventually shuttered completely at the end of 1948. Several of the buildings were leased out afterward, but all activity at the site came to an end by the 1970's. Since then, proposals have been made to convert the site to residential purposes with a condominium, but soil contamination has proven to be a sticking point. And so the mill site continues to stand idle... which is how Brind and I found it when we made the trek out one cold winter morning.

I had known about the mill for quite a while, but had never made the trek out to it. But, finding myself going stir crazy one winter morning, I got Brind to come out and we made a morning of the site. Quickly getting past the fence surrounding the property, we were surprised to find as much as we did; we were expecting it to be in much worse shape given the timelines. Certainly, there was no machinery to be had, but the structure was still in decent shape. We also found that some adventurous people had built a small skate park inside, out of bricks from fallen walls - we spent a while admiring their handiwork.

The old mill was mostly what we expected; empty and decaying. We were extremely cautious on the upper levels; the presence of numerous jack stands in the depths of the building had already hinted that the floors were not all that great, and neither of us wanted to go crashing from level down to the next.

At the end of the day, it was another local site visited. While I likely won't be back, having seen all there was to see, it still made for a nice, crisp winter morning trek.