If you're headed Lake Travis way
And picked an actual open day
You can visit this history
Otherwise, just the marker you'll see.
If you come here on the 4th Sunday of the months between March and October, you can get a tour.
Background info:
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visit link)
ANDERSON MILL, TEXAS. Anderson Mill, sometimes called Anderson's Mill or Anderson's Mills, was located on Cypress Creek in northwestern Travis County, about sixteen miles northwest of Austin. It was named for Thomas Anderson, who came to Texas from Virginia in the late 1850s. In the early 1860s he built a mill to make gunpowder for the Confederacy; when the war was over he converted the operation to a gristmill. Farmers came from miles away to have their corn ground, sometimes having to camp near the mill for several days to wait their turn. In the early 1870s Anderson added a cotton gin to his operation. A post office opened at Anderson Mill in 1876 with Anderson as postmaster. In 1884 the community had a population of thirty. When the post office was discontinued later that year, mail for area residents was sent to Duval. The development of steam-powered mills and gins gradually forced Anderson out of business. After his death in 1894 his family sold the equipment and moved to Austin. A historical marker was placed near the mill site in 1936.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John J. Germann and Myron Janzen, Texas Post Offices by County (1986). Ellen Seals, ed., A Legend Collection: Fact and Fantasy (Austin, 1981). --Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl
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visit link)
Pennsylvania millwright Thomas Anderson arrived at the headwaters of Cypress Creek, 20 miles northwest of Austin, in the early 1850s. It was there that Anderson, with his two sons, built the family home and gristmill.
Under the direction of the Texas State Military Board, the mill was designated as the Travis Powder Company in 1863. Anderson, with the assistance of Ephraim Toungate and Nick Hays, extracted saltpeter from bat guano available from nearby caves, and combined it with charcoal (obtained by burning cedar trees) and sulfur to produce the much-needed gunpowder for the Confederacy.
The mill returned to its original purpose after the war, but as the milling industry became more mechanized, the water-powered mill eventually became obsolete. After Anderson's death in 1894, the family sold the property and moved to Austin.
The Anderson Mill site was awarded a Texas State Historical Marker in 1936, and the ruins of the mill were dismantled in 1941 before the area was inundated by the waters of Lake Travis at the completion of the Mansfield Dam. The Anderson Mill Gardeners joined with family members to build a replica of the mill and museum on land near the original site.
"The Anderson gardens were irrigated--water was brought by gravity through canals to orchards, vegetables, and flowers. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and cut flowers were to be had throughout the season. In the early spring the entire hillside was a glorious mass of color--peach, pear, plum, and apple blossoms blended pastels pinks, white, and rose with the deeper shades of the native red bud. But--of all that used to be--only the lone chimney remains. The spring and the waterfall have long since been covered by the waters of Lake Travis." --Anderson Mill Gardeners, Austin Area Garden Center Flower Show program, April 18-19, 1959
"The Anderson grist mill was a gathering place for farmers who came to have corn ground. The settlers had to travel many miles and usually several wagons from a community would come to the mill and camp while their corn was being ground. The camping was enjoyed by all because this was a period of telling the news and helping each other with problems. The miller could only grind forty bushels of corn a day, so the men who were not helping would be doing repairs or talking about the crops. The women in the mean time were busy cooking and sewing and gossiping." --Anderson Mill Gardeners, Inc. A Legend Collection, 1981