Water, Stone, and Memory: The Mills of the Missouri Ozarks
One hundred years ago, the Ozarks were home to hundreds of water-powered timber and grist mills. Dispersed across the region, mills served local needs and often thrived within a few miles of another site. They were centers of work, commerce, and community life.
Today, many mill sites are fading away. Time and weather are taking their toll, and even well-meant repairs can change what remains. When a mill disappears, the loss is not just wood and stone. It’s a piece of local history.
This project is a focused visual record of the last few surviving mill sites, photographed with a whole plate large format camera and printed as handmade platinum and palladium contact prints.
I’m using this slow, 19th-century method on purpose. It fits the subject: craft, labor, and materials shaped by time. Each handmade print includes a short caption with the location, water source, known dates (when available), and a note on what the mill meant to the community.
The goal is a traveling exhibit that supports local museums and historical societies in three ways:
- a public exhibit that helps visitors understand the mills’ history and meaning
- a lasting visual archive of each site as it stands today
- a companion talk that explains how mills worked and why they mattered in the Ozarks
