Site of Kilraven

Before Kilraven had that name, D. T. Morton ran the mill. The Handbook of Texas says he took over the Spinks mill around 1900 and enlarged the sawmill and planer, then added a commissary, a boardinghouse, an electric generating plant and the mill pond. The post office, open from 1902 to 1904, carried his name. A logging tram ran beside the Cotton Belt line near the mill in those years. The Handbook says the mill kept running until the early 1920s and that by the early 1990s only the pond remained.

What the plaque says

Site of Kilraven Merchant and miller William Henry (Bill) Spinks rebuilt his sawmill near this site in 1891 after a fire destroyed his earlier venture in southwest Cherokee County. The mill occupied 20 acres of land beside the railroad called Spinks' Switch. Many employees lived near the mill in company houses. In 1900 Spinks sold his mill to the Arkansas Lumber Company, which improved milling facilities and added a boardinghouse. The village was renamed Morton when a post office was located there from 1902 to 1904. Harry C. and Allen Kiley and Alfred Craven purchased the mill in 1909, combining their names to form "Kilraven." The mill supported a community of about 250 people until it was dismantled in 1921 due to the depletion of raw materials. The town disappeared, and only the mill pond remained in the early 21st century. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 12 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• James H. Bowman — 2.1 mi
• John Joseph Bowman — 2.1 mi
• Mt. Hope Cemetery — 2.1 mi
• Site of the Town of Mount Sterling — 7.5 mi