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War Eagle Mill celebrated it's centennial rebirth in 1973 when
Jewell A. & Leta Medlin and Zoe Medlin Caywood built the fourth
Mill on the same site and foundations. The new Mill stands
as an authentic reproduction of the 1873 mill in preserving the
historical significance of the grist mill as the hub of the
rural community during the late 1800's and early 1900's.
The War Eagle River powers a stone buhr grinder in the Mill by
an 18 foot cypress undershot waterwheel - the only working mill
in Arkansas. 
War Eagle Mills
Sylvanus Blackburn came to the War Eagle in
1832. By 1838 he had a saw mill, a grist mill, and a
house. Peter Van Winkle came about 1850. The first
mill washed away in 1848. Then about 1860,
this was a thriving crossroads. March 8, 1862, Generals
Van Dorn and Price, retreating from the battlefield, bivoattacked 10 miles south of Elkhorn. The next day they
reached the Blackburn - Van Winkle area where abandoned homes
housed the sick and exhausted. While Curtis was in camp at
Cross Hollows before the battle, Col. Grenville M. Dodge ground
corn in Blackburns mill. The mill was burned by order of
the Confederate General to prevent the Union Army's capture and
use of the mill. The third mill was reconstructed in 1873
by James Austin Cameron Blackburn, son of Sylvanus, who later
became a state senator.
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