A History of the Little River Mills Site

Historical and architectural investigations were conducted from November of 1992, through January of 1993, at the mill site 9Ck410 on the Little River in Cherokee County, Georgia. The property is on the backwaters of Allatoona Lake and falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District. The work was conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. for the Water and Sewerage Authority of Cherokee County, who plan to construct a sewer line on the south side of the river, adjacent to the mill complex. The site had been determined eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places by the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer. Because of the potential for an adverse effect upon the site by vibrations from the proposed construction, a mitigation program that recorded the site by measured drawings, photography and archival research was implemented. Architectural drawings and large format photographs based on Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Survey (HABS/HAER) standards were prepared. Historical research indicated the site began as a grist mill, probably in the late 1840s. Sometime in the early 1870s a small yarn mill was started, initiating a tradition of textile milling at the site for the next 70 years. Around the turn of the century, the mill shifted its product line to cotton rope manufacturing, which continued until the mill closed in 1949. The mill was probably one of the few textile manufacturers in Georgia devoted exclusively to the manufacturer of cotton rope for plow lines and well lines.