The Visit Ozarks Guide

Your Guide to the Ozarks

Turner Mill and Spring

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.

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A 25-foot steel wheel stands alone in a spring branch on the north bank of the Eleven Point River, and it is nearly all that is left of a town. Turner Spring pours out of a cave opening at the base of a high bluff at about 1.5 million gallons a day, runs down the branch past the wheel it once powered, and the Forest Service's two interpretive signs at the picnic area tell the rest: a general store, a post office, a school, several houses, and almost 50 people lived at this mill community from the 1850s into the early 1900s. A very short hike from the launch takes you to the spring and the wheel.

The river splits the visit in two, and the two halves do not connect by land. The North access, at the end of a long gravel drive off Highway 19, is the mill and spring side: day use only, three picnic sites with grills, a boat launch, and no camping. The South access faces it across the water at river mile 21.5, about 4.9 miles below Greer Crossing, and it is the working river side: a rustic landing with a single-lane concrete boat launch, toilet facilities, and a handful of dispersed campsites, reached by its own road in from Alton. Pick your bank before you pick your road, because crossing between them means wading or floating the river.

Anglers mark this spot on the map for a different reason. The cold, spring-fed water above the accesses, down from Greer Spring Branch, is a Blue Ribbon Trout Area with special regulations; below Turner Mill the river stays cold and runs as a White Ribbon Trout Area, stocked with rainbow trout from March to October. Motors are capped at 25 horsepower, the roads in are gravel and slow, and nothing about the place is built up. That is the appeal: a ghost town's wheel, a bluff spring, and two quiet landings on one of Missouri's wildest rivers.

Good to know before you go

Fees
No fee is stated by the U.S. Forest Service on the Turner Mill North River Access page or the Turner Mill South River Access entry read for this listing, marked unknown. Do not assume the visit is free; check the Forest Service pages before you go.
Hours and seasons
The Forest Service states no site hours and no seasonal closure for either access on the pages read for this listing; the hours shown on the North page are the Eleven Point Ranger District office hours, not the site's. The split between the banks is exact: the North access is day use only, with no overnight camping (USFS); camping is at the South access across the river, in limited dispersed campsites (USFS). Boats on this reach are limited to 25 horsepower (USFS). River conditions and flood closures can change access on the Eleven Point; check the Forest Service's Eleven Point River page for current conditions before you go.
Parking
North access: a dirt parking and turnaround area at the end of Forest Road 3190, where the road dead-ends at the river (MDC). Reaching it: Highway 19 about 11.5 miles north of Alton (about 15 miles south of Winona), east on Forest Road 3152 (labeled Oregon County 154 on Google Maps) for about 6 miles, then right on Forest Road 3190 for about 2.6 miles; Google Maps routes the North access 20.1 road miles from Alton and 25.1 road miles from Winona. South access: parking at the launch and campground at the end of Oregon County 127 (Forest Road 3153): Highway 19 north 1.5 miles from Alton, right on Highway AA about 4.8 miles, then left on County Road 127 about 4.5 miles to the river (MDC); Google Maps routes it 11.2 road miles from Alton. The listing pin is the North access (36.7655316, -91.2668779), the Google Maps place record for Turner Mill North River Access, because the spring and mill wheel are the listing's core and are reached from that bank.
Accessibility
The Forest Service publishes no accessibility statement for this site. The spring and wheel at the North access are reached by what the Forest Service calls a very short hike from the picnic and parking area; both accesses are at the ends of gravel forest roads, and the South access is described by the Forest Service as rustic.
Nearest town
Alton, Missouri
Region
Southeast Missouri
Coordinates
36.7655316, -91.2668779
Access type
Boat launch at the north (day-use) access; single-lane concrete boat launch at the south access across the river

What you can do there

  • The standing 25-foot steel overshot wheel of Turner Mill, in the spring branch at the North access (USFS)
  • Turner Spring, flowing from a cave opening at the base of a high bluff above the North access, at about 1.5 million gallons a day
  • North access: day-use picnic area with 3 single picnic sites with grills and tables, a boat launch, and two interpretive signs on the mill community's history (USFS)
  • Vault toilet near the North access parking area (shown on Google Maps at the end of Forest Road 3190)
  • South access, across the river: limited dispersed campsites, a limited day-use area, a single-lane concrete boat launch, and toilet facilities (USFS)
  • Eleven Point River mile 21.5, where the Blue Ribbon Trout Area above the accesses meets the White Ribbon Trout Area below them (USFS and MDC)

Best for

Filed under

Official sources

Details last verified 2026-11-09.