We had no intention of searching for the remnants of an old water mill that is located smack dab in the middle of a little town, a village really, in the Ozarks. We set out on that day last spring to find Caplinger Mill and Dilday Mill, located in Caplinger Mills and Greenfield, respectively. While meeting up with Craig Tucker to see Dilday Mill, he mentioned that the old Spring Mill in Hurley still existed – in part. Of course, we had to add that to the list, since we were in the neighborhood.
Discovering Spring Creek Mill
Craig Tucker had approached me last year at The Library Center in Springfield, after a presentation I gave on our book, “Milling Around: Exploring 26 Mills in the Missouri Ozarks,” and asked why we didn’t include Dilday Mill, in Dade County. The reason we didn’t include it, is because we simply didn’t know it existed. It will be included in our second book about mills in the Ozarks, which will also include mills in the Arkansas Ozarks. Craig then offered to guide us to Dilday.
While I will be writing soon about Dilday and Caplinger Mills this summer, I feel compelled to tell you about this oddity, this quirky find in the middle of a tiny town in the Ozarks.
Spring Creek Mill
What’s left of the Spring Creek Mill is located in Stone County, in the town of Hurley (which lies 5 miles east of Crane). Some people call the mill the Hurley Mill. It was built in 1892 by James Reynolds and Pryor Sanders, who used it to grind wheat and flour. Later, the mill produced animal feed, which we see as a pattern with older mills as they aged and couldn’t compete with modern milling technology or prices. It’s reported that the fellows had a quarrel shortly after building the mill, parted ways and sold the mill. Throughout the years, various millers operated the business. Water for the mill’s overshot wheel came from Spring Creek.
The mill was the first real form of industry for this small community, also a pattern we see in many towns across the Ozarks. In 1898, the town received permission to build a post office, but not with the name it wanted – Spring Creek – but, with the name “Hurley.” Supposedly, the US Postal Service chose that name, and we don’t know why, but we are wondering if there was an employee in the USPS somewhere with that name.
By the early 1900s, a robust community had blossomed around the mill, and the “Branson Globe” reports the town had the following businesses: “The Spring Creek Mill (grinding flour, meal and feed), a lumber company, farmers exchange, general merchandise store, cafe, barber shop, shoe shop and repair, telephone central, MoPac station agent, physician and surgeon, Ford sales and service, hardwares and implements, produce dealer and shipper, Bank of Hurley, blacksmith, boarding house, groceries, a school and churches.”
Because of technology and transportation improvements that made milling at larger, centralized mills cheaper and more efficient, the mill closed in 1955. In 1997, Don and Anna Christenson, along with their son, bought the mill. The Christensons had all good intentions of restoring the mill, and offering it as an attraction. However, on April 3, 2005, a nearby brush fire somehow caught the third story of the mill on fire, which took down the entire building. According to Jim Miller, who toured the mill in 2004, and took photos that are on this website, “Many antiques and much old milling equipment were lost in the fire. A rare old 1879 corn burr, a 50-gallon ceramic flour bleaching crock, various old grain cleaners and separators, old wooden grain chutes, and other household type antiques were lost forever.”
Miller wrote, “The mill had used an overshot wheel, and plans were for restoring the wheel had the fire not cut the plans short. Roof and floors were repaired or replaced as the mill was in bad shape when purchased. Mr. Christenson had much historical merchandise and commemorative items of the mill for sale in the back of the mill as well as item of the Stone County Historical Society available for purchase. All these items were lost.”
The Spring Creek Mill Today and Pics of Hurley
Pieces of the foundation of the mill lie along the creek. It’s not hard to find, and it’s definitely not difficult to imagine a three-story grist mill onsite here. The town of 176 (2020 census) has a Facebook page..
Here are some online resources about the Spring Creek Mill:
