BOLLINGER MILL LETS A FEW AREA RESIDENTS VISIT THE 1800s EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK

Randy Quade, park maintenance, showing a milstone crane used to lift the one-ton grindstone off for cleaning and dressing.

Eric Glatthaar, a seasoned tour guide, explains a roller mill to James, Mark, Debby and Ron Brandly of Troy.

Donna Allen with a 19th century fanning mill used for cleaning grain.

Jack Smoot shows a gate control for the water turbine that is below the mill.

Each day, most of us get up and go to work. Some of us sell insurance, some of us work in a plant and others drive trucks.

No doubt about it, some jobs are more interesting than others but a job more interesting than that of Jack Smoot, Randy Quade or Donna Allen is hard to imagine.

While most of us work in the here and now, these Jackson area residents and the others who work alongside them on a seasonal basis clock in on a clock which runs about 120 years slow, maybe slower. The three work full-time repairing, maintaining and showcasing Bollinger Mill and the adjacent Burfordville Covered Bridge.

The mill dates back to 1866, but it is the third mill to operate on the site. The first was constructed around 1800.

Construction on the bridge was begun in 1858 but was not completed until after the Civil War. It is awaiting renovation and is closed to foot traffic.

With the majority of each day's focus placed on the old mill, it's easy to understand when those who work around it say Bollinger Mill has become a part of them.

"It does become a part of you," said Smoot. "You have to be careful sometimes because you get a little possessive. That's good because it makes you fight a little harder for the things you know need to be done but you have to remind yourself that the mill and bridge belong to everyone."

Smoot is the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' site administrator for the Burfordville park. He's been at the site for 15 years and has been its administrator for the past 11 years.

In that 11-year time span, Smoot has done just about everything and seen just about everything at the mill, which he likens to a toy.

"I've said this to a lot of people before; one of the things I like about this job is that it's never routine," he said. "If you get bored with what you're doing one day, there's always something else to do.

"I've always been interested in things mechanical so being able to work at the mill is kind of like having a big toy to operate."

It is quite a mechanical toy and quite a responsibility for Smoot and the others who work with him.

From 1895 until 1953, the mill was kept in full operation by the Cape County Milling Co., a successful company which boosted the watermill's production by installing more modern methods and cleaning machinery.

The mill's upper floors were equipped with modern roller mills for flour processing and a new and larger water turbine was installed to power the equipment. The French buhr grindstones were still used to grind corn into meal.

Despite the greater efficiency which came from these improvements, business began to fall off in the early 1940s and the mill was turned into a storage facility for livestock feed made at the milling company's more modern mills at Jackson.

In 1953, the mill was purchased by the Paul Vandivort family, descendants of the Bollinger family.

In 1961, Paul Vandivort's children turned the mill over to the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society. In 1967, the mill and bridge were turned over to the state.

The mill was first powered with a traditional water wheel but the facility was later updated with a turbine system which not only turned the buhr grindstones, but also powered some of the roller mill flour processing machines and other equipment used to sift and clean grain.

Throughout its commercial life, the mill was powered wholly by the water power of the Whitewater River which was harnessed by a dam built in the early 1800s and updated in 1825 by Bollinger.

The turbine system, which still operates, was one which relied on the dam and chutes in the lower limestone portion of the mill to route water into the mill's basement.

Water rushing into the mill was directed down onto a turbine which translated its power to the grindstones through a large iron shaft. Other machines, including grain legs used to move grain among the mill's four upper floors, drew power from the shaft through a system of pulleys and gears which ran throughout the building.

Maintaining the site, said Smoot, requires the staff to walk the line between keeping the facility in its near-original state and making it accessible to those who wish to learn more about the mill, the bridge and the milling process.

"The mission of the Division of State Parks is to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the state and provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the people," he said. "You work hard to save the site but it's also important to remember what you're saving it for. We feel it's important to allow people to come in here for tours and allow people to see the mill operate."

Smoot said the state's decision to restore the mill back to operating condition and allow sightseers to view the mill's turbine and wheels in operation was a controversial one. Many felt that the ability to see the mill operating was not worth the wear-and-tear on the scarce equipment.

Many of the shafts, wheels, belts and cogs employed at the mill are no longer sold. This makes the job interesting for Smoot and full-time maintenance man Randy Quade.

"One of the most unique parts of the job is finding suitable replacement parts for the things that are here," said Quade, who is a lifetime native of the area but said he never visited the mill until he began work there just over 15 years ago.

"You can't just go to the hardware store and buy what you need so we end up doing a lot of scrounging and fabricating of parts."

Having spent the past 15 years crawling through, over, around and under the mill, Quade, too, admits it has also become "his."

Smoot said most all members of the staff, whether full- or part-time, take the same parental perspective when considering the mill's upkeep.

"It's a problem when a lot of the old stuff is no longer available but we do everything we can when repairing things to maintain the historical authenticity and historical fabric of the mill," said Smoot, who explained that the quest for authenticity goes as far as using oil paints rather than more modern ones in keeping with the fact that the mill would originally have been painted with an oil tint.

Smoot said the staff may even suffer a dilemna if the original type of wood used in construction is unavailable when repairs are made.

The staff of the mill also receives assistance in their maintenance work from a large support staff headquartered in a regional office in Festus.

Typically, the winter months are reserved for general upkeep and maintenance work at the mill -- things like replacing windows and cleaning equipment.

However, the mill is open every day of the year except four and tours are given at any time.

Tours are the job of Donna Allen, a descendant of George Bollinger and the site's only full-time tour guide. She is assisted by a part-time tourist assistant throughout the year while four seasonal employees are hired to conduct tours during the summer months.

Although she has given tours at the mill for some time, she is often as amazed at the site as many first-time visitors.

"When I give the tours, I always think of the hardships they went through to build the mill and work here" where the frictions of the grindstones made it incredibly hot and dust and noise made the job even more unpleasant, she said.