The first Kimlin cider press in the late 1800s was a simple press that was powered by a horse walking in a circle around the press and the cider was drained through straw. Kimlin family lore tells us where the original press was located on the west side of Cedar Avenue. In 2023, CMF partnered with Vassar College to have some archaeology done in the presumed area of the original press.

Professor Ryan Rybka was teaching the course “Archaeology: Lessons from the Past”, which is as introductory archaeology class, and so he used the Kimlin cider press “ground truthing” as part of the class.

They performed two days of field work (shovel test pits) and then wrote up a report of the results. The most decisive evidence for this being the location of the original cider mill is that one of the test pits located a vertically positioned wooden post. More work is needed, but we are grateful for the efforts of Professor Rybka and his students and glad that we could provide an opportunity for the class to do some archaeology for us.