The Bagdad Mill Site was home to a succession of enterprises that shaped Northwest Florida. In 1817, Juan de la Rua cleared land at Arcadia on Pond Creek to create a dam and possibly a saw mill, but labor shortages hindered the effort. In 1828, Connecticut entrepreneur Joseph Forsyth bought Rua’s land and established an industrial complex with a mill and pail factory. In 1830, Forsyth partnered with Andrew and Ezekiel Simpson to build Arcadia Mill, the first and largest water-powered industrial complex in Florida. The Forsyth and Simpson Company purchased slaves to build an earth and ironstone dam, dig log flumes, and work the mills. By the mid-1830s, Arcadia Mill operated two saws and shipped 5,000 board-feet of lumber each week. Over its 38 years of operation, the site included a saw mill, a lumber mill with planing and lathing machines, a gristmill, bucket and pail factory, shingle mill, cotton textile mill, and silk cultivation operation, helping shape the political and economic climate of Northwest Florida. When Arcadia Mill became obsolete, Forsyth and the Simpson brothers built a new steam-powered facility on the waterfront and began constructing the village of Bagdad. Its steam engines were fueled by sawdust, and fresh water reached it through wooden pipes from a nearby spring. In the new mill, Forsyth relied mainly on Northern labor for skilled work and on enslaved men and local white men for unskilled work. After Forsyth’s death, the company was reorganized as E.E. Simpson and Company in 1855. On the eve of the Civil War, the mill employed 150 workers and produced $250,000 in goods.