Issue link: https://alabamapower.uberflip.com/i/1131940
Milling about 1850s MILL BECOMES POPULAR WEDDING VENUE By Chuck Chandler In his infrequent role as parking lot shuttle driver, Todd Flowers knows what's coming. "When we hit the gap in the trees, where they first see the mill, you ought to hear the gasps," he says, saying it's one of the favorite parts of his job managing Yellowleaf Creek Mill with his wife, Danyula. It's a similar experience at Christmastime, as people will line the little one-lane wooden bridge spanning the creek just below the 150-foot-long dam as they photograph the winter scene when the red wood building is covered in holiday white icicle lights. e grist mill is at least 164 years old (some records indicate it may go back as far as 1841), having once processed up to 4,500 pounds of cornmeal, flour and grits each day. At the height of business, the Clanton mill, just a few miles upstream of Lake Mitchell, was selling its products in more than 200 stores in Chilton and surrounding counties. It was the last water-powered mill in the state when its doors closed in 1990. e former Shannon's or Miller's mill fell into disrepair, sitting shuttered for decades until a Birmingham businessman found out about it and considered moving it to Shelby County. He instead bought Yellowleaf Creek Mill in 2014 and restored it in place. "It was in awful shape," Flowers says. "What we have now was David Brogdon's vision." Local crasmen spent months bringing the mill back to life, retaining most of the original equipment and restoring it to working order. To make it an event venue, a covered wood deck was built around two sides of the mill, a covered stone patio was erected alongside the dam (totaling 2,000 square feet beneath the awnings) and a curved covered pier was built on the edge of the lake above the dam. e old blacksmith shed where buggy repairs were done while farmers' corn was milled has become a storage area and bar. "A guy came in one day and said, 'Is the hole still in the wall?'" says Flowers. "e blacksmith kept the hot coals inside that hole to be ready to shoe horses and do other work for the mill customers. We le it intact during restoration. Man, if these walls could talk." Photos: Meg McKinney; arials: Jay Parker 23 www.apcshorelines.com