RADFORD – Radford University English instructor Ricky Cox, a staff member in the Appalachian Regional Studies Center, is keeping a promise to his friend, the late Frank Webb. He’s co-editing Water Over the Dam: The Water-Powered Grist Mills of Floyd County, VA 1800-2000.

A history of approximately 150 mills, the book combines Webb and Cox’s research which Webb originally started. Webb, whose father operated a mill in the mid 1920s, began researching the remains and histories of grist mills after an early retirement.

Cox, a native of Floyd County, says, “Our paths crossed about 1991 while I was doing research on small, portable grist mills that flourished throughout the rural South after gasoline engines and electric motors became available and affordable. I spent many Saturdays and part of my summers with Frank from that point until shortly before he died in December 1996. He asked me to make a book out of what he had collected and I’m trying to get that done.”

The book is being published by McFarland and Company. Cox anticipates a release in 2009.