Kymulga Grist Mill and Covered Bridge Traditional Cache

You are searching for a camo pill bottle.  This cache is hidden with the gracious permission of The Childersburg Historical Preservation Commission.   Access to the park (and the cache) is $3, but it is well worth the admission.

The City of Childersburg, AL acquired the Kymulga Grist Mill and Park in June 2011. It is operated and managed by The Childersburg Historical Preservation Commission as a tourist attraction and venue for recreation, education, events and family fun.  Listed on the National Register of Historical Places, the Kymulga Grist Mill, Covered Bridge and Park is a unique and special place in the community, and is a fun place to visit and learn with your family.

The mill was built by Confederate Army Captain Forney. Forney died before completion, and his wife allowed the contractor to complete the mill. The contractor was a German from South Carolina by the name of G. E. Morris. He was an inventor and had a foundry in South Carolina where he made all of the gears and parts used in the mill. He had hired a man to build a water wheel for him and the man slipped in and patented it two hours before Morris got to Washington. Morris went home and changed the design on his wheel and it worked better than the first one. He made money, while the man who stole his invention went broke. Morris also had a single mill down below the mill (the foundation still stands). Split shingles, about three feet long, were put on the mill originally. Morris was building three other mills at the same time. Union soldiers burned them, but missed the Kymulga mill.

Mrs. Forney eventually sold the mill to James Baker who owned it for many years. He sold it to a dentist, Dr. Hurd, and he sold it to John L. Carter in 1949 who operated it as an active mill until it was sold in October 1973 to Ed Donahoo.

The lumber and timbers were cut from the mountains across the creek and the big timbers were hewn out in the surrounding woods. All lumber was cut using water power.

None of the windows have bars. The side jutting out over the water is 29 ft. long. The structure contains a tin roof and has iron brackets and hinges. The lower windows have flat iron bars across the opening for strength.

The mill has five sets of grinding rocks, with two sets coming from France. A slave drove two yoke of oxen to Mobile to haul them back to the mill. They are called French Buhrs. They are thought to be the hardest rock in the world. One old set of rocks in the mill was used in an old mill which was across the creek before this one was built.

The mill was run by three underwater turbines. The water powered turbines ran the mill, lights, and grain elevator. The elevator holds 3,200 bushels of shelled corn.

The Kymulga Grist Mill Park store sells locally raised honey as well as corn grits and meal.  There are picnic benches, a screened-in pavilion, walking trails, camping areas, fishing, canoe rentals and more.  One of our favorite experiences was learning about pawpaws, a fruit that grows only in the east-central United States, and is sort of like a mix between a banana and a mango.  There are numerous pawpaw trees in the 80-acre park, and if you come at the right time of year (and you beat the squirrels to them) you might get a chance to sample this exotic, little-known native fruit.

We enjoyed the park during a recent school field trip, and when we saw there was no cache here, we asked the park managers if we could hide one along a walking trail.  They agreed, and were eager for the visitors it might bring to the Mill.  Good luck!