Southeast Missouri / Lead Belt / Mississippi Corridor
Bollinger Mill and the Burfordville Covered Bridge anchor the county
The county's signature historic place is a state-run mill and one of Missouri's surviving covered bridges, the right anchor for understanding local settlement and the Whitewater River.
Bollinger Mill State Historic Site sits in Burfordville on the Whitewater River. The site has two main attractions. The first is a big four-story gristmill (a mill that grinds grain into flour and meal) built of stone and brick. The second is the Burfordville Covered Bridge. A covered bridge is a bridge with a roof and walls over it. Only a few covered bridges are still standing in Missouri, and this is one of them. Missouri State Parks runs the site and shares its story. The site ties the county’s past to milling, the river, and the people who first settled here. It is the best place to start if you want to learn how the area grew up around water power and a river crossing. For dates and building details, trust the State Parks information instead of local stories. And before you repeat any “one of the last” or “oldest” claim, check it against the official record first.
References
Where this fits: this note belongs to Bollinger County. See every local note for the county on its page.