As you walk down a gravel path through the woods you come upon an idyllic moulin rouge tucked away in a tree-lined gorge. Water from a mill pond gently tumbles over the dam. This is the first impression a new visitor gets when they encounter the Balmoral Grist Mill Museum, located in Balmoral Mills, Nova Scotia. It is easy to focus on the beauty of the scene, and the accompanying inevitable sense of nostalgia. The deeper significance of the site lay in the unseen: a fully preserved example of a 19th century mill that was one of four others that existed on Matheson Brook. Along with the mills there were other businesses, a school and a post office in this once busy little community.