Volume 3, Number 11 - Spring 1970
Four of Ozark County's 5 Mills Preserved,
One a Ragged Beggar Dying
by Ruby M. Robins
Ozark county can yet claim having more mill buildings standing than any other county in Missouri, but one of these, the once proud Hammond Mill, will eventually fall from disuse and lack of care.
Zanoni Mill, which is also not in use, like Rockbridge, is kept in good rapair and, with its overshot wheel, is a tourist attraction.
Rockbridge Mill is maintained as part of the Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch and the other two mills in the county, Dawt and Aid-Hodgson, are still in operation.
Hammond Mill as it looked when it was built in 1907.
HAMMOND MILL
On the Little North Fork
Hammond Mill was built in 1907 on the Salt Road between Springfield and Jacksonport, Ark., at a point on the Little North Fork easy to dam for water power. The old road now ends in the headwaters of Bull Shoals Lake and the dam and mill stream are gone.
Once part of a thriving community which had its own bank, the mill was built by J. W. Grudier one of the founders of the village of Hammond. The first postmaster, Walter Please gave the community this name in 1894.
The mill ceased operation in the 1940's. Later the machinery was sold and now the building is an empty hull. Like Whittier's old school, it's a ragged beggar, but not sunning as the school seemed to be to Whittier's imagination, rather the sun points up the soon collapse of the sagging weatherboards and sashless windows.
County Route D, off Highway 95, 5 miles from Thornfield, which leads south to the old mill, is one of the top scenic drives in Ozark county. It winds through Mark Twain Forest in northwestern Ozark county to an unmarked road leading to the mill and the Little North Fork. The mill is on one side of the river and what was once the village of Hammond is on the other side. The bridge is now washed out and has been dynamited to keep cars from attempting to cross it.
Zanoni Mill stands off Highway 181
ZANONI MILL
In Pine Creek Valley
Zanoni Mill with its fine overshot wheel was built by A. P. Morrison about 1906 at a site where milling had been an industry since the Civil War. His mill replaced a structure which had burned in 1905.
The overshot wheel, a popular feature with photographers and artists, is driven by water from a falling spring with a measured flow of from 194,000 to 226,000 gallons daily.
Though milling ceased in 1951, Mr. Morrison, popularly known as "uncle Doc," who is 87 years old, has kept the mill in good repair.
The first postmaster, George W. Shoemaker is said to have named the office for Zanoni, Va. Zanoni was the name of a novel by Bulwer-Lytton.
Nine miles northeast of Gainesville just off Highway 181, Zanoni is one of the mills lying along or near this scenic old mills drive of the Ozarks.
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