Hodgson Water Mill, in Ozark County.
Built in 1861 to harness the power of a massive spring flowing into Bryant Creek and rebuilt in 1897, the tall, three-story frame building nestles against a bluff of the Bryant. Though the mill no longer grinds grain, it still houses the old milling machinery. (The nationally distributed line of stone-ground bakery products bearing the Hodgson name is now produced at a modern mill in nearby Gainesville.)
The spring still spews nearly 3,000,000 gallons of clear, cold water a day. Besides the mill, it once powered a cotton gin, a lumber mill, and a clothing factory. In pre-REA days, the power of the water also generated electricity for all the mill-site enterprises. And, once upon a time, thanks to the constant 58 degree temperature of the spring, the mill was a popular site for neighborhood dances.
Issuing from the bluff under the mill building, the spring is still picturesque. It nourishes native ferns and mosses clinging to crevices in the sheer rock wall. Some of the water is diverted to the mill pond, where watercress and other marine plants thrive. Inside the mill building, an opening to a cave in the face of the bluff provides natural air conditioning.
A modern day facility in nearby Gainesville, MO is still producing and distributing the all natural stone ground flours of the past under the Hodgson Mill name.
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