🌾 Discover Independence County: Where History Still Turns 🌿
Just six miles northwest of Batesville along Highway 69 sits a piece of Arkansas history you might drive past without even realizing its story: Spring Mill. Built just after the Civil War in 1869, this water-powered grist mill is one of the only known operable mills from that era in the entire state.
Spring Mill began when Anthony N. Simmons, a farmer and miller, commissioned Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Schnabel to construct a stone dam (1867) and mill building beside a cold spring that could harness nature’s power to grind grain. Over the decades, families like the James, McCrory, Headstream, Coon, and especially
 the Lytle family kept the mill alive — hauling spring water to neighbors and grinding corn into meal for the community.
For generations, Spring Mill was more than a workplace — it was a community gathering place where neighbors met, stories were shared, and the rhythm of rural life was measured by turning stone and water. Today its historic gears still stand, a reminder of how hard work and ingenuity powered families and farms in early Arkansas.
Whether you love history, beautiful spring waters, or hidden Arkansas gems, Independence County’s Spring Mill is a story worth telling — and a memory worth making.