AAA Traveler Magazine

The Old Mill

Dillard Mill is nestled in the Ozark hills along a rocky stretch of Huzzah Creek. /Nick Decker, Missouri Department of Natural Resources photo

Published: May/Jun 2000

If you’d like a loaf of bread today, just stop by your local grocery store and select from an array of prepackaged choices, including sourdough, white, whole wheat, pumpernickel, rye, asiago and more.

But more than a century ago, your first stop–after harvesting your wheat–would have been the local gristmill to have your grain processed into flour. The flour you didn’t need to make your own bread you could sell or barter for other goods.

More than 900 mills were scattered around Missouri alone at one time. But today, only a handful remain intact in the Midwest. Though they no longer operate on a commercial basis, these historic structures do still grind out plenty of lore about the way pioneers lived.

Gather at these mills to recall simpler times. They stand as reminders of a bygone era, when man harnessed nature to produce a daily staple.

Bollinger Mill

In return for a 640-acre Spanish land grant in southeast Missouri, George Frederick Bollinger of North Carolina agreed to develop the land and bring settlers from the East. At the time, probably the best way to develop an area was to construct a gristmill, which he did after he returned from his home in 1800 with 20 families.

After the mill began operating on the Whitewater River, Bollinger gained a reputation for his product, and the mill prospered. During the 1800s, gristmills such as the Bollinger Mill were more than just a commercial component of the small towns that grew up around them. They were a gathering place where news was swapped and families picnicked.

The existing stone-and-brick mill, which was built in 1867, is the third mill that has stood on the site. It was updated over the years to be powered by a turbine instead of a water wheel. But the four-story structure was shut down in the mid-1900s when larger operations put small mills out of business.

Located just west of Cape Girardeau, the mill has been restored. And a collection of historic machinery inside chronicles the evolution of the milling process.

Sharing the scenic setting with the mill is the 140-foot wooden Burfordville Covered Bridge, one of only four covered bridges remaining in Missouri. The site also contains picnic areas and a hiking trail. For details, call (573) 243-4591.

Dillard Mill

As testament to the importance mills once played in pioneer life, the small south-central Missouri town of Dillard earned its name from one of the owners of the community’s mill, Joseph Dillard Cottrell. Though the present-day mill was constructed around 1904, the first mill at the site was built in the mid-1800s.

Nestled in the Ozark hills along a rocky stretch of Huzzah Creek, the picturesque mill sits between two millponds, separated by a narrow outcrop of rugged dolomite. The mill’s barn-red metal siding shimmers in the clear waters of the creek.

The site was so beautiful that the last owners of the mill, Lester and Virginia Klemme, opened a lodge at the site when milling became less profitable. They closed the mill for good in 1956, but the Old Mill Lodge attracted guests until 1962, when Lester shut it down following Virginia’s death.

Today, the 132-acre Dillard Mill State Historic Site offers a fully operational mill and store, picnic sites and a hiking trail. Guided tours are available for a fee. Call (573) 244-3120.

Alley Spring Mill

Alley Spring Mill became part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in 1969, but visitors have been coming to the picturesque south-central Missouri setting for 10,000 years. American Indians once camped near the spring’s turquoise waters, and the nearby Jacks Fork River attracted homesteaders from Tennessee and other areas in the 1830s.

The spring became the focus of the community, and the first mill was built in 1868. A speculator built the present mill in 1894 with a turbine instead of a water wheel, and with steel rollers rather than grist stones. The three-story mill provided finely ground wheat flour for farmers and was later expanded to include corn grinding, a sawmill and an electrical generator.

Today, the red wooden building is a treasure for photographers, and it contains historic milling equipment. There are also picnic areas and nearby campsites.

In addition, two nature trails are offered, including one that runs along the rocky bluffs that surround the 60-foot spring pool. An average of 81 million gallons per day rise up from the spring. Call (573) 323-4236.

Montauk Mill

The headwaters of the Current River are generated when the tiny Pigeon Creek merges with the approximately 40 million gallons of cold spring water that emanate daily from the Montauk Spring in south-central Missouri. The spring’s rushing waters were ideally suited to powering gristmills, and early settlers built no fewer than four mills in the valley, the last of which is still standing.

The first mill was built in 1835, followed 25 years later by both a gristmill and sawmill. A third turbine-powered mill was added in 1865, but it was destroyed by fire. With the salvaged turbine, a new mill was completed in 1896.

That mill is the lone remnant of the once-thriving village of Montauk, which earned its name from some of the early pioneers who came from Montauk Point in Suffolk County on Long Island, N.Y. Much of the mill’s original machinery is still intact.

Unlike the other parks, however, the mill is not the primary attraction. That distinction belongs to the trout that swim through the park’s meandering stream. The park’s initial 3 1/2-mile section of stream is stocked daily with rainbow trout from March 1–Oct. 31.

Visitors can camp, rent rustic cabins or stay in the park lodge, which features a restaurant and store. For more details about the park, call (573) 548-2201, or for lodging reservations call (573) 548-2434.

Spring Mill

Most of the remaining gristmills are solitary reminders of days past. But at the Spring Mill State Park in southern Indiana, you can get a feel for what a whole pioneer community that relied on the mill was like in the early 1800s. In addition to the working water-powered mill, the restored Spring Mill Village features a reconstructed sawmill, hat shop, post office and more.

Visitors to the park, located in Mitchell north of Paoli, can purchase three-pound bags of corn meal that was ground at the mill. The park also offers a visitors center, quaint inn, dining, picnic areas, horse trails, fishing, boating, swimming, a nature preserve and the Virgil I. Grissom Memorial Visitor Center, which features a space capsule and an audiovisual presentation about space exploration. For more information, call (812) 849-4129.

Once an essential component of daily life, these mills are now relics of our nation’s heritage. Like the steam engine, they have been left behind in our society’s advancing technological race. Today, they stand as important vestiges to our ancestor’s ingenuity, imagination and artistry.