This state historic marker mounted on an old mill grinding wheel at the former site of Chadwick's Mill, along the US 190 on the east side of the Colorado River west of Lometa, in a small pull-out near the truss bridge.
There are two plaques here, the second of which is placed directly underneath the state historic marker, and which designed to match the state marker. However, Blasterz do not believe this second plaque is part of the official state historic marker.
The state historic marker reads as follows:
"CHADWICK'S MILL
(Site three miles north)
Famous pioneer sawmill, flour mill, and cotton gin. Built 1874 by Henry A. Chadwick and son Milam. A sturdy oak dam across river supplied power. A millrace chiseled in sandstone channeled water to millstones. Mill and gin house were also sandstone. A fish trap in millrace offered food and sport to customers, who often had to wait several days for a turn at the mill.
This scenic spot grew to be a popular resort around 1900, with hotel and dance platform. Attracted hundreds of campers.
Change in course of river, 1915, forced mill to be abandoned.
This millstone is typical of those used during the Chadwick Mill period, 1874-1915.
Original Chadwick Mill property, consisting of 25 acres of land and improvements is now owned by
Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Hicks
Lometa,
Texas."
From the Handbook of Texas Online: (
visit link)
"CHADWICK, TEXAS. Chadwick was on Antelope Creek eight miles northwest of Lometa in western Lampasas County. In response to a growing need for a mill in the western part of the county, Henry A. Chadwick and his son, J. Milam, built a log dam on the Colorado River in 1879. They also built a sawmill, flour mill, and cotton gin at the site and later constructed a stone dam in front of the wooden one. The Chadwick Mills were soon in high demand, and wagons came from as far as San Angelo to use them. The settlement later became a freight station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, and the growing community took the name Chadwick. By 1900 the town had become a popular scenic resort, with a small hotel and an outdoor dance platform near the mills. Campers, fishermen, and other tourists were drawn to the area by the scenery and excellent hunting and fishing, and at one time Chadwick was one of the most famous inland fishing resorts in the state. Milam Chadwick was running a power plant at the mills by 1910. A post office, established in the community that same year, served about twenty-five people. At one time a school was located a quarter mile from the railway station. In the summer of 1915 the west bank of the Colorado River was washed out locally by heavy rains, and the river's course shifted so that it bypassed the dams at the Chadwick Mills. Attempts to restore operations failed, and eventually the mills were abandoned. The local post office was discontinued in 1918, and the railway station was closed in January 1941. All that is left of the once popular resort is a historical marker-placed at the former site of the mills in May 1971-and a cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ed Ellsworth Bartholomew, 800 Texas Ghost Towns (Fort Davis, Texas: Frontier, 1971). Jonnie Ross Elzner, Relighting Lamplights of Lampasas County, Texas (Lampasas: Hill Country, 1974). William Leshner, "Lometa: A Coming Lampasas County Town," Texas Magazine, November 1910. Lewis B. Porter, Sr., Take a Journey with Me from the Washboard (Goldthwaite, Texas: Goldthwaite Eagle Press, 1976)."