Mills to Visit in the Ozarks

Spring powered grist mills are the Ozarks' signature buildings, and several still stand over the water that turned them. The guide's mills, with their stories and visiting details.

The weathered vertical-board Klepzig Mill on its concrete pier above the rocky bank of Rocky Creek

Klepzig Mill

Near Winona, Missouri

Walter Klepzig's little turbine mill still stands in the shut-in canyon of Rocky Creek, unsigned and easy to pass by, at the end of a dirt road or a hike from Rocky Falls.

  • Photographers
  • Hiking
  • History Lovers

Alley Spring and Mill

Near Eminence, Missouri

Missouri's seventh largest spring pours about 81 million gallons a day past a bright red 1894 roller mill, in the most photographed corner of the Jacks Fork country.

  • Photographers
  • First-Time Visitors
  • History Lovers

Falling Spring Mill

Near Winona, Missouri

A spring pours from a cave opening in a bluff and drops about 15 feet into a millpond beside a small 1927-1929 mill and an 1851 log homestead cabin, in a rustic Forest Service picnic ground south of Winona.

  • Photographers
  • History Lovers
  • Picnicking

Turner Mill and Spring

Near Alton, Missouri

A 25-foot steel mill wheel stands in the branch of Turner Spring on the north bank of the Eleven Point River, with a day-use picnic area and launch on the north side and a rustic campground and concrete launch facing it across the water.

  • Photographers
  • History Lovers
  • Picnicking