Chadwick's Mill

Customers came farther than the neighborhood. Wagons rolled in from as far as San Angelo, and the settlement around the mills became a freight station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway and took the Chadwick name. By 1910 Milam Chadwick was running a power plant at the mills, and a post office opened that year for about twenty-five people. At one time it was among the best-known inland fishing resorts in Texas. The post office closed in 1918, and the railway station shut in January 1941. Only a cemetery remains with the marker.

What the plaque says

Chadwick's Mill (Site three miles north) Famous pioneer sawmill, flour mill, and cotton gin. Built 1874 by Henry A. Chadwick and son Milam. A sturdy oak dam across river supplied power. A millrace chiseled in sandstone channeled water to millstones. Mill and gin house were also sandstone. A fish trap in millrace offered food and sport to customers, who often had to wait several days for a turn at the mill. This scenic spot grew to be a popular resort around 1900, with hotel and dance platform. Attracted hundreds of campers. Change in course of river, 1915, forced mill to be abandoned. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 13 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Hancock Springs Park — 25 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.

More markers nearby

• Site of Harmony Ridge Community — 2.0 mi
• Barnett-Hamrick Settlement, 1855-1895 — 6.2 mi
• Senterfitt Cemetery — 7.2 mi
• Site of Old Town of Senterfitt — 7.3 mi