Boshell's Mill is the historic site of a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

and

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

on Lost Creek near Townley in rural

Walker County, Alabama Walker County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama."ACES Walker County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Walker As of the 2020 census, the population wa ...

. The site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975. It was recorded by the

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...

as part of the

Birmingham District The Birmingham District is a geological area in the vicinity of Birmingham, Alabama, where the raw materials for making steel - limestone, iron ore, and coal - are found together in abundance. The district includes Red Mountain, Jones Valley, and ...

in 1992.

History

Boshell's Mill, one of several mills run by the Boshell family in Walker County, was started by William R. Boshell in 1885. It was initially a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

-powered sawmill only, with the creek used to transport logs to the mill. Boshell expanded the mill in 1901 with the addition of a dam built using locally quarried stone. It was completed in 1902. A gristmill was built on the opposite bank of the creek in 1903.

Water turbine A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, t ...

s at each end of the dam supplied power to each mill. The Boshell family operated the mills until 1963. It was listed on the National Register on May 30, 1975. A fire destroyed the sawmill building in 1976. Another fire destroyed the gristmill in 1986. The stone foundation piers and dam currently remain intact.

References

External links

(HAER) documentation, filed under Lost Creek at Alabama Route 124, 1.7 miles South of Route 78, Townley, Walker County, AL: ** ** ** ** Industrial buildings completed in 1895 National Register of Historic Places in Walker County, Alabama Industrial buildings completed in 1903 Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Watermills in the United States Sawmills in the United States Historic districts in Walker County, Alabama Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Historic American Engineering Record in Alabama {{WalkerCountyAL-NRHP-stub