Major George Frederick Bollinger built the first mill here in 1800 on a 640-acre grant from Louis Lorimier, Spanish Commandant of the Cape Girardeau district of Upper Louisiana. A German Swiss from North Carolina, Bollinger visited the area in 1796 and returned with 20 families, and his mill became the largest and best in the district. Damaged in the Civil War and later rebuilt, the mill operated until 1950 and is now owned by the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society. Bollinger was an outstanding pioneer, a militia major in the War of 1812, and a noted legislator in the Territory and later the State of Missouri. At the Whitewater River, where it spills over Bollinger Mill dam, stands one of Missouri's few remaining covered bridges. The date 1860 on the east pier marks the beginning of construction, which was halted by the Civil War and not completed until 1867. The early settlement here became the Burfordville post office in 1870, probably named for its first postmaster. Built of yellow poplar by Cape Girardeau contractor Joseph Lansmon, the bridge was a marvel of wood engineering with a 140-foot self-supporting span, and in 1950 the Missouri State Highway Commission restored it.