Wheat farming and flour milling formed the backbone of the Clarke County economy for more than 150 years, and the county’s at least 60 mills helped give the Shenandoah Valley its mid-19th-century reputation as the breadbasket of America. Nearby Millwood preserves a distinctive part of this early Shenandoah Valley and American milling experience through two restored sister mills built by Nathaniel Burwell, master of the Carter Hall plantation, one as a merchant mill and the other as a plantation mill. Built five hundred yards apart, both were powered by the spring-fed, constantly flowing Spout Run. Today, the Burwell-Morgan Mill is a working 18th-century colonial-era merchant mill owned by the Clarke County Historical Association, while the Mill at Carter Hall is privately owned and not operational.