Jackson Mill Spring, former home to Joseph P. Lyons Mill (Old Jackson Mill)

The Jackson Mill Spring once powered the Joseph P. Lyons Mill, also known as the Old Jackson Mill. It sits southwest of Ava, Missouri, and is part of the Spring Branch that empties into Beaver Creek. The mill got its name from its first owner and operated, Joseph P. Lyons, who homesteaded the land during the Presidency of James Buchanan. The mill arose during the 1850s, but the main structure longer exists. Still, remnants of the mill remain visible near the creek, and the powerful spring that powered it remains, which is still frequented by canoers, kayakers, and campers.

Lyons ran a small mill on the site until he decided in 1847 to expand the mill's capacity. He traveled to St. Louis and purchased a Run of 48" French Buhr millstones. The Buhrs were quarried in France, shipped in sailboats to New Orleans, transported upriver along the Mississippi to St. Louis, and assembled into a stand referred to as a "Run of Buhrs." Lyons purchased the millstones, which allowed for increased grinding of grain into flour, and transported the Burh millstones on their final journey via oxen to the mill site near Ava, Missouri. The new mill, completed sometime around 1854, consisted of three levels where grinding took place —corn on the first floor, flour on the second floor, and loom and wool processing on the top floor.

A bushwhacker (Missourian guerilla fighters who lived in hiding during the Civil War and resisted the Union occupation) killed Lyns in 1862. Lyons' sons took over the mill's operation until they sold the property in 1878. The ownership changed hands several times until Stephan Jackson purchased the mill in 1888, hence why it is sometimes referred to as "Old Jackson Mill." Numerous ownership changes occurred again during the early twentieth century until the mill ceased operations in 1926. 

Lyons Mill and its French Buhrs remained idle until May 1971, when W.J. Caldwell, owner of The School of Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, obtained the millstones. Today, a multitude of locals and visitors boat, canoe, and kayak along Beaver Creek, which runs forty-four miles from the historic Jackson Mill site, near the historic spring, southwest through the Ozark landscape and the Mark Twain National Forest; some choose to camp or picnic at the mill before or after their journey. 

"75 Years ago, September 1, 1938." Looking Backward: From Back Issues of the Douglas County Herald. douglascountyherald.com. September 5, 2013. https://www.douglascountyherald.com/2013/09/05/looking-backward-9-5-2013/.

Cameron, W.D. "Bill." "The Joseph P. Lyon's Mill." White River Valley Historical Review 4, no. 4. Summer 1971. https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/V4/N4/s71k.htm.

Curry, J.E. Reminiscent history of Douglas County, Missouri, 1857-1957. Ava, Missouri: Douglas County Herald, 1957. mdh.contentdm.oclc.org. Digitized in 1988. https://mdh.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/mocohist/id/6994.

"Douglas County Museum." Douglas County Herald (Ava, MO), August 3, 2012. https://www.douglascountyherald.com/2012/08/03/douglas-county-museum-13/.