Bollinger Mill hosts first community event Saturday

Sunshine dried the lingering mud puddles not a moment too soon for families eager to picnic and play football during the first outdoor Summer Fun Day sponsored by Missouri State Parks on Saturday at Bollinger Mill State Historic Site in Burfordville.

All four floors of the 19th century water-powered mill resting on its original 1825 foundation were open to self-guided touring. Lawn games also were set up, stationed next to two food trucks: Sugar Chic Creamery and Straight Line Swine BBQ.

Missouri’s oldest covered bridge — construction began in 1858 — adjacent to the mill also was open for touring.

One of three full-time staff members Muriel Zachary, Missouri State Parks park/historic site specialist III, said when it was functioning, the mill would’ve been the community-gathering place.

“So to get back to the feeling of that, we wanted to have some events that leaned in that direction,” Zachary said. “So far, it’s going very well. It seems very positive.”

Zachary said she had no idea how many people to expect Saturday.

“We have actually been flooded so many times this year,” she said. “We were hoping for maybe around 200. That was our goal, and if we get more than that, it’s just icing on the cake.”

She said the person who first founded the mill on the site in 1800 was one of the founders of the area — George Frederick Bollinger. He and several of his brothers were founders in the area, Zachary said, before Missouri became a state, and several of the brothers built mills, she said.

And since the first mill built in 1800, “there’s been a mill in operation here almost continuously,” Zachary said.

But with the mill no longer in operation, she said the main objective is to preserve the building and the bridge.

“Because it’s been here for 150 years and we hope for another 150 years,” Zachary said, adding the structure of the bridge is original.

Inside the mill on the second floor, Phillis Bollinger, who said she was no relation to George Frederick Bollinger, was looking out the window toward the covered bridge, reminiscing of times as a child she would fish with her grandfather at the same location, using bait made from Wheaties cereal, she said. Bollinger’s grandson was outside playing, she said.

“It’s nice to pass on those memories,” Bollinger said with a smile.

Kate Stevens and her son Gus, 7, and daughter Madge, 9, were playing catch in the front lawn Saturday. They had just toured the mill, making the drive from Cobden, Illinois.

Stevens said she believes it’s important to preserve the site “because there’s nothing like it anymore.”

Dallas Westrich was providing free bottled water to guests at his booth set up in the front lawn. He was representing Burfordville Baptist Church.

“This mill really built Burfordville,” Westrich said, pointing to the structure. “Right behind the right door, you walk inside, you’ll see ‘SRB’ on the wall; Solomon Richard Burford, my great-great-grandfather, he built it.”

Marty and Donna Calvert of Leopold, Missouri, were enjoying pulled-pork sandwiches from the Straight Line Swine BBQ food truck at a nearby shaded picnic table.

The reason they attended Saturday was to see the mill and tour all four floors, he said, adding the chance is “unusual.”

Zachary said updates to the site since March include interpretive panels once on each floor of the mill — including mill and building history, how the mill worked and machinery information — are now on the bottom floor, to be more accessible to guests.

Bollinger Mill State Historic Site is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday through Nov. 15 and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

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