Man giving new life to unused Stokes mill

Jessup’s Mill building that sits along the Dan River in Collinstown was once a hub of activity. Besides milling, its owners sold sodas and snacks and fixed broken machinery.

COLLINSTOWN (By Lisa O'Donnell, Winston-Salem Journal) - Several months ago, Andrew Jones was wandering through the winding back roads of Stokes County when he happened upon a time-worn, four-story mill that towers over a flat stretch of the Dan River.

Intrigued by a “For Sale” sign staked in front of the mill, Jones pulled over and poked around. A hodgepodge of mill parts, tires, machinery and tools covered each of the floors in the cavernous building. An overgrowth of tangled brush blanketed a swath of land between the old mill race and the side of a hill.

Getting Jessup’s Mill back in shipshape would require a boatload of work. Most of us would have gotten back in the car and resumed driving.

Jones saw a little slice of heaven.