(birds chirp) (water burbles) (cheerful music) - Hi, my name's Tom.

Welcome to the War Eagle Mill.

You're in a working gristmill, running like they did about 190 years ago.

This is the fourth gristmill on this site, originally built in 1832.

You might ask, what is a gristmill?

Good question.

Grist is anything that grows out of the ground, that can be corn or wheat, that's brought to this mill you see standing behind me.

Farmers would bring their crops and grist to the gristmill back in the 1800s to grind their crops at the gristmill, and they would grind their corn or flour into corn meal or wheat.

Behind me on the floor you see corn meal that we've ground this morning off of the gristmill behind me.

So in 1832 when the Blackburns moved here, they came from Tennessee in a wagon pulled by four oxen.

Arkansas was described as rugged wilderness in 1832.

It wouldn't become a state until four years later in 1836.

We think the Blackburns built this gristmill with the parts they came with.

They probably took the the wheels off their wagon, and placed the wheels where you see the wheels in back here today, wheel, wheel, more than likely they took the axle off their wagon, and put that in between the wheels, and used their axle.

The first gristmill they set up in 1832 was pretty simple, so they used the equipment material they had with them back in 1832.

So the War Eagle Mill is powered by the river water down behind us in the river, and powered by the the power wheel turning in the river.

No electricity is used out of the gristmill.

Back in the 1800s, when the settlers first moved here, the way they got their power was they settled the gristmill down by the river and diverted the river water, and that was the power to the gristmill, no electricity.

So the water moving in underneath the paddle wheel, in the river is the only power to this grist mill.

The river water rushes underneath that paddle wheel and that shaft as it turns with the water wheel, turns to this first set of brown belts you see coming through the floor.

So it's water wheel, shaft, that first set of belts you see turning, all turn together at the same time.

And that's our first initial power to the gristmill.

This shaft and the final set of belts also turn together, and that's our power to the gristmill.

We now have our power to grind our grist, which today is corn.

So the first gristmill was built in 1832 by the Blackburn family.

They moved here from Tennessee and built what would turn out to be the first of four gristmills on this site.

The Blackburns found out quickly that they were in danger of flooding.

In 1838, six years after they built their grist mill, it flooded completely into the river, including the water wheel out back.

They were washed away and it was a complete loss in 1838.

The Blackburns rebuilt in 1839, and ran the mill up until the Civil War.

In the 1860s the Blackburns were allegiant to the southern troops.

However, three days before the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Southern Confederate General burnt down the mill so the Northern troops couldn't use it.

So Blackburns had to rebuild in 1873, a third gristmill on this site.

They also put in a sawmill to run with their gristmill.

They ran up until the 1930s, and then the War Eagle Mill burnt again to the ground and remained vacant for 40 years.

There was nothing but a foundation here.

The Midland family from Missouri purchased this property in 1973 and rebuilt the War Eagle Gristmill for a fourth time in 1973.

That's the structure you're looking at today is the 1973 rebuild.

Now 50 plus years old, building and water wheel all have lasted the last 50 plus years.

- Right, this is the War Eagle Mill General Store.

As you saw, our miller, Tom, make yellow corn meal.

We sell the products that are made at the War Eagle Grainery, and we also have a lot of local people in the store from northwest Arkansas, and then regional from Oklahoma and Missouri.

Yeah, and we also have the cafe upstairs, and we're most popular for our beans and cornbread, that's made with our yellow corn meal as well.

- Thanks for coming to the mill.

I hope you enjoyed the milling experience, like they did 190 years ago.

(cheerful music fades) Thanks for milling around.

Hope to see you soon.