by Bud Warren
It was a cold 11-degree night in January, and some of the good crowd kept their winter jackets on as they gathered in the boat house of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club to hear about early tide mills of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Tide Mill Institute was there in spirit, for the three speakers had attended our April 2018 conference in Queens and decided to highlight the early history of tide mills in their area with a public program.
The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, founded in 1999, is a very active volunteer organization dedicated to providing waterfront access and education about the Gowanus, its estuary and neighboring waterfront communities of Red Hook, Sunset Park and Brooklyn Heights.
During the this past season, over 2,000 individuals including more than 200 youth, participated in various programs. This chilly evening the topic was tide mills, and two of the speakers had presented at our earlier tide mill conference. Alyssa Loorya talked about her archaeological work at the oldest mill in the area and Eymund Diegel talked about the tide mill at the heart of the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War.
About the author: Bud Warren is one of the founders of Tide Mill Institute and has documented hundreds of tide mill sites in Maine and other east-coast locations.
Click an image to enlarge
Urban archaeologist Alyssa Loorya shares the history of one of the early Gowanus tide mills. 
The Gowanus Dredgers boat house. 
Dredgers on the water in warmer times.
Thanks for your support, Bud! It was great to have the Tide Mill Institute’s help to make this a great well-attended event.
Its great to see the spirit of the tide mills continuing.
Its time we start the NY Chapter of the Tide Mill institute
They put those flour barrels on the NYC Coat of Arms for a reason!
Bob Singleton – Astoria Historical