One of the most beautiful places here in the Ozarks is Hodgson Mill!
I've ridden there many times over the years.
The story to this beautiful scene is truly historical.
The Hodgson Water Mill is located in the valley of Bryant Creek in Ozark County, Missouri.
It was built in 1897 by master millwright Alva Hodgson.
The Mill is built against a limestone bluff, beneath which a massive spring flows from a cave opening spewing nearly 3,000,000 gallons of clear, cold water a day into Bryant Creek.
The original millstones came from the Pyrenees Mountains of France, one of the prime sources for hard nodular flint frequently used for millstones.
The output of the mill, capable of producing 3,000 pounds of flour or 2,500 pounds of meal daily, was sold to wholesale and retail grocers throughout the Ozarks and well into north Missouri. Though the mill no longer grinds grain, it still houses the old milling machinery.
A nationally distributed line of stone-ground bakery products still bears the Hodgson name, but is now produced at a modern state-of-the-art facility.
After leaving the Hodgson Mill for his brother to run, Alva Hodgson went on to build the nearby Dawt Mill where he stayed for a number of years before moving to Henderson, Arkansas, where he built a cotton gin.
When his eyesight began to fail, he rejoined his brother at the Hodgson Mill. Though almost blind, he was able to run the mill successfully from memory almost up to the time of his death in 1921.
The mill is situated on Highway 181, known as the scenic old mill drive of the Ozarks, near the unincorporated community of Dora.
It is officially registered in the National Register of Historic Places.
I feel blessed to be able to live near such Beauty of the Ozarks.
Nana
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