Yes, in the old days it may have been easy to get disoriented. But, as long as you could tell where the sun was you could tell direction. Distance would be another matter. If possible, I would think people would have traveled along rivers. Soddies were the typical means of construction in the early days for odvious reasons. In fact, there is an old homestead site on my Dads place with a square of silver maples planted around it and a deprecion in the ground that we believe was a dugout. We have no idea who homesteaded it as it must have been before the area was deeded. But most of the maples still stand.
As for the mill. I think it is an old Ireland but have not found any identifying marks on it. I have seen pictures of both a #6 and #8 Ireland and it looks similar but not an exact match.
