NEW EXHIBITS BEING BUILT FOR BOLLINGER MILL

BURFORDVILLE -- The four floors of the mill at the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site contain many pieces of heavy machinery used to turn grain into flour. These machines, if you understand them as Jack Smoot does, tell a story about the evolution of milling from the time Oliver Evans developed the automated grist mill in the late 1700s until the Bollinger Mill closed in 1953.

Smoot, the site administrator, hopes new exhibits being designed for the mill will help tell that story.

A St. Louis firm called Ginkgo Design is fabricating several dozen new exhibit elements. Ginkgo specializes in designing exhibits for natural history museums and visitor centers. The company's work can be seen at the visitor center at Giant City State Park in Southern Illinois.

This is the company's first mill project.

"To be honest with you, the first time my partner and I walked through the mill it looked like an old building full of rusty machinery," says Jeff Powell, Ginkgo's president. "The whole learning process was very interesting. They had to know a lot of stuff about a lot of things."

The mill presents unique challenges, he said. "Environmentally, it's not an exhibit-friendly place. The first floor fills with water sometimes, presenting a unique challenger to a designer."

Powell thinks Ginkgo may have gotten the job because the company recommended using waterproof materials in its exhibits.

Smoot says one of the goals of the new exhibits is to explain the mill's workings in a variety of ways because people learn differently.

A tour of the mill is a review of the technology that was developed to increase the efficiency of milling, and of the physics involved.

"It gives you an appreciation for the knowledge they had to have to do what they did with the materials they had," Smoot says.

For instance, on the second floor is a middlings purifier, a machine that allowed milling to become a giant industry. Middlings are what's left of the grain after the bran is removed and before it's ground into flour. The purifier machine increased the quality of the flour and the percentage of flour extracted.

Higher technology is being used to mill grain today, but the principles of the machinery used in the 19th and 20th centuries remain the same, Smoot says.

Milling evolved over time. "Some people equate it to the development of civilization," Smoot says. "We could go from being hunter-gatherers to an agricultural society."

One of Ginkgo's challenges was to create first-floor exhibits that preview the upper floors of the mill for visitors who may be disabled or unable to navigate the mill's twisting, narrow staircases. This will be done through illustrations and models. Historic sites face a difficult job in balancing Americans with Disabilities Act goals with maintaining the site's historic character, Smoot says.

Missouri has four mills in its system of historic sites. The other three illustrate a specific era, but the Bollinger mill can't be limited that way because three mills operated at the site from 1800 until 1953. "We're hoping to make the mill more of a museum that illustrates the milling process," Smoot says.

"It was a time when an incredible amount of change occurred in the process of milling grain."

Visitors often ask where the water wheel is that powered the mill, but this mill always was powered by a turbine turned by the downward force of water. With 6 feet of water over the turbine it is capable of generating 25 1/2 hp. The turbine also powered the grain elevators.

A second-floor exhibit area will offer a history of the mills at the site and their owners. The first, George Frederick Bollinger, purportedly was the first German immigrant to settle in the Louisiana Purchase. A county and a town Fredericktown are named for him. Bollinger replaced the first mill in 1825, and that mill was burned by Union troops in 1861. Solomon Richard Burford, who lent his name to Burfordville, built the third mill at the site in 1867.

The Cape County Milling Company operated the mill from 1897-1953. It then was bought by C.A. Vandivort, who used it to store grain until 1961. The mill was owned by the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society for a few years before becoming part of the state parks system in 1967.

A timeline will show how the mills fit into the history of the state, the country and milling in general.

There also will be information about the covered bridge next to the mill. Few remaining combinations of grist mill and covered bridge remain in the entire country, Smoot said.

Grain was transported by elevators to be sorted on the mill's fourth floor, a place that was dusty, hot and loud. The millers weighed a small amount to determine the moisture content and sifted part of it to see how much trash was in the grain.

At its peak, the mill produced 600 barrels of flour each day, often operating 24 hours a day.

Railroad transportation led to the demise of smaller mills. The Bollinger Mill survived longer into the 20th century because transportation into the Ozarks remained difficult.

Smoot built most of the existing exhibits himself after coming to work at the site in 1983. In conjunction with the redesign, he is asking for anyone who have information about the mill or who may have worked for the Cape County Milling Company contact the historic site. They want to conduct interviews so that the information is not lost. The mill phone number is 243-4591.

Powell said his company hopes to trick visitors to the mill into learning something. "Most people are not nearly as interested in learning something as being entertained," he said.

"We will be adding color and visual interest to the space," he said. "But the building itself is an exhibit. We don't want to detract too much from that."

Powell said the exhibits will be completed and in place sometime this summer.