Calton Mill at Tom Town Historic District near Monett, MO USA - Water Mills on Waymarking.com

Alternate names for the Tom Town area are Calton Mill and Carter Canning Company. The latter was a business just up the road to the northwest. All of the buildings or remains thereof are on private land, but you may stop to see them from the road and take photos, as we did.

The Calton Mill has been reconditioned. But don't expect to see the classic overshot or undershot wheels. It used a turbine wheel which was hidden out of sight under the building. Water power for the mill was from a mill race which stretches quite some distance east, where it was supplied by a dam across Calton Creek[1]. You can still see the silted-in mill race going to the base of the mill building -- one of the photos is looking directly down the mill race. In a satellite view of the area, you can see the mill race, roughly paralleling Calton Creek. It is now just a U-shaped trench.

Across the road a short distance northeast[2], you can see the heaped remains of the old Carter Canning, and later Sperandio Canning Company. Note from the NRoHP Registration Form that the canning company building was still standing, but in a very dilapidated condition, when it was listed in 1989. Its remains can be seen at about:
N36°52.213',W093°48.611'

Note 1:
The aforementioned NRoHP Registration Form states that the USGS maps incorrectly call it Calton Creek, whereas it is actually Little Flat Creek. However, Little Flat Creek has two branches, splitting east of the ghost town of Easyville. The one branch heads southeast toward McDowell. The other branch heads northeast past the Calton Mill and the Calton Cemetery. Current topos differ on what they call this latter branch - either Little Flat Creek or Calton Creek. Since Little Flat Creek already has a presence toward McDowell, to avoid confusion between the two branches, I am calling this branch Calton Creek. But you will see it under both names. (My choice not only honors the Caltons who settled here, but it avoids confusion as to "which way did Little Flat Creek go?")

Note 2:
In the registration form, the distance between the mill and the cannery is given as "approximately 600 feet." However, from the sketch and the current remains, it is clear that the cannery was actually about 175 feet northeast of the mill. Historical satellite views back to 1997 show no remains as far northeast as 600 feet; and there would be something visible. Whereas, the remains at the above coordinates, about 175 from the mill, match the structure in the sketch, and the photos of the cannery in the registration form.

Current Status: Still In Use Current Use: Storage

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/09/2014 MountainWoods visited it