Before there was a town,

The village carried the name of the mill and its owner. The original mill was built by the Kimberling family who squatted on the land until it was officially purchased by John Hoover. The mill was located at the convergence of the Finley River and the Ozark Trace, the mail delivery route through the area, and it filled many of the critical functions of the settlement such as the Post Office for receiving weekly deliveries.

The village of Ozark was incorporated with the mill serving as a community gathering place and official voting location. The name Ozark came from a term French traders used to refer to the bends of the Finley River "aux arcs". It would later become the county seat, an important note in the history of the town's growth and development.

The Civil War took a great toll on this region. Local folklore tells us that while the town was held by the Union, the Confederates controlled and used the mill for a time. By the end of the war, the area was largely depopulated, and many homes, crops and livestock had been burned. The milling industry, along with a dairy and beef production, brought Ozark back from the devastation of the War.

Following the Civil War, a vigilante group known as the Baldknobbers formed in the Ozarks. They delivered punishment on southern sympathizers, Bushwackers and others. The band of Baldknobbers in Ozark were so enraged by the influx of outsiders moving in to work the new rail line that they took it upon themselves to kill several innocent men. Three Baldknobbers, including the leader of the local band, Bullcreek Dave, were brought to justice for this crime by a hanging on the Ozark courthouse square.

After the mill was destroyed by fire for the second time, the Hawkins family bought and rebuilt the mill. They built a new concrete dam that produced a 90-horsepower drive from the river flow. After a third fire in 1939, they decided to no longer produce flour in an effort to prevent further fires.

Howard Garrison, a character from one of the longest standing local families, was arrested after a raid on his restaurant the Riverside Inn, when he was caught bootlegging and selling alcohol in the establishment. The famed local spot for fried chicken always reopened after raids or floods until 2010 when it was purchased with FEMA money and demolished. Just a mile from the mill, Garrison attributed Riverside's success to the advent of the automobile and the popularity of nearby Lindenlure.

After 50 years of operation, the Frisco Railway abandoned the Chadwick Flyer rail line from the city of Ozark to Chadwick in 1934 due to removal of local timber. "Prior to the closing of the line, business was so poor that on occasion the engineer would stop the train so that the train crew could pick blackberries and shoot quail."

The last commercially operating watermill in the state of Missouri, the Mill ceased operation. The mill is currently undergoing preservation efforts to save the historic structure from the hungry flood waters of the Finley. Come be a part of its reopening!