You will notice there are several mill stones pictured here. If you go to Upton you will find very few open fields, it's all pretty much woods, ponds, lakes and swamps. To have this many mill stones in one area there had to have been a great amount of cleared land. The stones would have been used to grind corn, wheat or oats for the making of bread and other baked goods. The grain was fed into the center area of the stones. As the stones turned, usually by water power, the grain worked its way along the grooves toward the outside. Most of the grain would be ground between the stones along the way.
As you travel aroung the Great North Woods, look for signs of long past farming. You will find stone walls, house and barn foundations, and old barbed wire all over the place. The family farms of the 1800s and early 1900s are now mostly gone. Their pastures have now returned to forest and most of the buildings have rotted away.