From today to this Friday, 14 volunteers will assist Forest Service staff in rehabbing Falling Spring Mill and cabin in Oregon County.

“Both the single crib log cabin and mill structure with Pelton wheel have experienced decay and need maintenance and
stabilization,” said Ken Hicks, a Forest Service spokesman. Doug Stephens, Mountain Heritage Association, will supervise the Passport in Time project, along with Bruce Gibson, project leader.

Falling Spring is 15 feet above the base of a rock bluff, and flows between 40,000 and 187,000 gallons per day. The land was purchased in 1853 by the Brown family. Water from the spring was conveyed by a short flume to the overshot waterwheel on the mill. Two mills have been constructed here: the first in the 1870s with a wooden waterwheel, and second, a 16 x 20 foot structure with a one bushel capacity grain hopper and metal wheel was built by J. W. Brown sometime between 1927 and 1929. The mill was also used to generate electric for storage batteries before the arrival of REA electric. Water from the spring was used to water stock. According to an interview with Mr. Walter Brown, the cabin was the first built on the site, and the site occasionally flooded from nearby Hurricane Creek.

According to Stephens, the scheduled work includes lifting the structure and replacing the milled lumber sills with logs to match the historic sill logs; removing graffiti; replacing floor planking with milled lumber to match historic planks; tightening loose roof steel; stabilizing the building with a new, dry laid foundation; repairing mill structure siding; cleaning up and trimming vegetation around cabin, and creating defensible space.

“Volunteers play an important part in maintaining Mark Twain National Forest historic sites,” said Mark Twain National Forest Supervisor David Whittekiend. “We appreciate their contribution to stabilize and maintain important parts of Missouri’s history like Falling Spring.”
(USFS news release and Traveler information on the spring and mill.)