The McCosh Grist Mill is a historic

grist mill 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 ...

near Rock Mills in

Randolph County, Alabama Randolph County is a county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Alabama."ACES Randolph County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Randolph As of the 2020 census, the populati ...

. The mill was built in the early 1870s, and is the oldest extant stone grist mill in Alabama. It was built by James Eichelburger McCosh, whose grandfather, Jacob Eichelburger, operated earlier mills that were similar to those in his native

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. McCosh also owned 500 acres (200 ha) of farmland nearby, and later added a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

to the site. The mill operated until 1958, and was purchased in 1970 by the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

as part of the

West Point Lake West Point Lake is a man-made reservoir located mostly in west-central Georgia on the Chattahoochee River and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The Chattahoochee river flows in from the north, before flowing through the West ...

reservoir project. The mill sits on the sloped bank of

Wehadkee Creek Wehadkee Creek is a stream in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. It is a tributary to the Chattahoochee River. ''Wehadkee'' is a name derived from the Creek language The Muscogee language (also Muskogee , ), previously referred to by its ...

, and is 3.5 stories tall on the stream side and 2.5 stories on the bank side. It is constructed of unfinished stones, however features details such as finished stones as

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s, courses of rectangular stones between the doors and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, and half

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

s as window and door arches. There are two entrances on the main floor, with a large opening above that was probably used to hoist grain to the upper story for storage. The side elevations have two windows per floor, while the rear has four, all with stone sills and wooden

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

s. The creek side originally featured a 12-foot wide by 20-foot diameter (3.5 by 6 m)

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...

, which was replaced with three

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

s around 1900. The dam which fed the

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

sits about 500 feet (150 m) upstream, is 8 feet high by 125 feet long (2.5 by 38 m), and is also constructed of stone. ''See also:'' The mill 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 1976.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Randolph County, Alabama Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Historic districts in Randolph County, Alabama Buildings and structures in Randolph County, Alabama Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama {{RandolphCountyAL-NRHP-stub