Voca Waterwheel Mill

Voca's first settlers arrived in the late 1850s and early 1860s and lived with occasional raids. A post office opened in 1878, and John and W. C. Deans named it Voca, after Avoca, Arkansas. By the mid-1880s the community had about 120 residents, a school, a Methodist church, a gristmill, a cotton gin and two general stores. A bridge was built across the San Saba River near the town in 1910. Voca counted about 100 people from the mid-1890s until the mid-1960s and fifty-six in 2000.

What the plaque says

Voca Waterwheel Mill Built 1876, by H.A. Chadwick and sons, William and Milam, who constructed other mills in the region. Water was diverted from river by a still-visible, 1300-yard millrace. Originally used to grind wheat and corn; a saw was soon added to provide "rawhide" lumber. First cotton gin in the county, powered by this wheel and producing 3 bales per day, was constructed in early 1880s. A store operated near the mill for a short time, but moved to Voca after landlord refused to allow the sale of bitters. Mill operated until washed away by flood, June 1899. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — 19 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.

More markers nearby

• Site of Camp San Saba — 3.0 mi
• Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy — 8.0 mi
• Peter's Prairie School — 9.6 mi
• Wagram Cemetery — 10 mi