Van Winkle's Mill Site

Near Rogers, Arkansas, in the hollow of Little Clifty Creek, this nineteenth-century industrial archaeological site preserves the foundations of mills operated from 1850 to 1890 by Peter Van Winkle, a major figure in northwestern Arkansas's lumber industry. The complex also included his house, a blacksmith shop, and worker quarters, and before the Civil War its labor force included enslaved people. The war brought major disruption: Van Winkle's first mill and house were burned, and after abandonment the property was scavenged for building materials. Its surviving remains trace an early Ozarks industrial landscape tied to timber production, wartime destruction, and labor history.

Arkansas · United States