1122 – Mill from Naters, Valais, 18th/19th Century
The little squared log building on a masonry foundation represents the typical building shell of mills in the Valaisian lateral valleys.
Unequal Sisters
The little squared log building on a masonry foundation represents the typical building shell of mills in the Valaisian lateral valleys: on the outside it is similar to the mill from Törbel (1121). However, the two mills have different drive means: in the stump mill from Törbel, nozzles multiply the impact of the water jets and cause turbine wheels hidden beneath the floor to turn. This mill from Naters has a slowly rotating water wheel on its outer wall. In this case it is the weight of the water channelled over the wheel and falling into its compartments that causes the axle to turn.
Speedup
The large, slowly turning gear wheel has 52 wooden teeth which mesh with only nine pinion sockets in the small spindle. This causes the spindle to turn six times faster! The little mill stood on a meadow in the “im Stock” hamlet between Naters and Birgisch. It was driven by the Milch brook and could only be reached on foot. The building is probably older than the inscription 1872 over the door. It was in service until the farmer-miller Marius Salzmann left the property “im Stock” and its mill in 1966 and moved to the valley floor with his family. At the time antique dealers were combing rural regions and buying up for a song anything that the accelerating economy rendered redundant – for the Naters mill there was already an elevated tender pending. Fortunately the Ballenberg Open-Air museum was able to take over the mill and its original equipment.
The Valais – a Canton of Waterwheels
When the Lausanne Professor for Economic and Social History, Paul-Louis Pelet, researched water-powered Valaisian businesses in the 1970’s he found, in the field and in archives, 956 (!) examples of waterwheels. About half of those wheels which could still be identified were vertical like that of Naters. Such a large number in a single Swiss canton clearly shows how widespread and important for daily life rural industry was. Ballenberg presents yet other hydraulic systems: a sawmill (691), a bone mill (692) and a linseed crusher (694).
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
10 April to 26 October 2025
10 am to 5 pm daily
