Yarber Grist Mill opened in February 1933 in a tin building on Main Street in downtown Red Bay after owner and operator Preston Yarber moved there from Belmont early that January. Located across the street from where the park is now, the mill's primary day-to-day functions were grinding corn meal and crushing livestock feed made from corn, hay, soybeans, and other ingredients raised by farmers, who brought materials by wagon, tractor, truck, and sometimes in car trunks for mixing and processing. Its original John Deere gasoline-driven crusher operated slowly, causing long lines and delays, but in 1946 a larger, faster O.B. Wise crusher powered by a 25-horse powered electric motor increased production by reducing feed processing time from 10-12 minutes to 3 minutes per hundred pounds. The mill also ground shelled corn into corn meal using two large circular rocks, one stationary and one turned by a pulley driven by another 25-horse powered electric motor, with the meal's texture adjusted by drawing the rocks closer together. Because there was no other way to gauge texture, the miller had to feel the meal by hand as it came from the out-spout and keep the rocks set at precise intervals to maintain proper consistency, a skill requiring years of experience. Yarber processed corn meal for farmers from corn they brought to the mill and also made corn meal sold from the mill and from grocery stores in and around Red Bay. The mill closed in 1952, and over the years Ben Collum, Hosey Orricks, Dewey Sartain, John Paul Davis, Mr. Nix, and Yarber's sons Billy and Benny worked there.