Halloween event is perfect time to visit Rikard's Mill Historical Park

I read this week that the Monroe County Heritage Museum will hold a “Ghost Stories at Rikard’s Mill” Halloween-themed event at the Rikard’s Mill Historical Park on Oct. 28-29 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The event will feature costumed storytellers who will entertain visitors with scary tales at the park’s covered bridge, millhouse, pioneer cabin, carriage house and barn. Visitors brave enough to journey down the “Haunted Swamp Trail” should be prepared to encounter the “ghosts” of Native Americans, Confederate soldiers and “the Headless Horseman of Gin House Bottom.”

The event will also include pumpkin relay races, pumpkin painting, a pumpkin toss, a marshmallow roast and other food vendors. Admission is $5 per visitor or $20 per car.

I’ve lived in Monroe County for most of my life and worked at the newspaper in Monroeville for six years, but I’ve never been to the Rikard’s Mill Historical Park.

Located on Flat Creek, the park features a fully restored, water-powered gristmill, which was built and operated by Jacob “Jake” Rikard, who was born in 1806 in South Carolina. Rikard was a blacksmith, locksmith and miller and some say that he was a “mechanical genius.”

In an effort to support his many children, Rikard built a mill on Flat Creek in 1845 and operated the mill until sometime before 1858 when the creek flooded and washed the mill off of its foundation. The original mill featured 48-inch millstones, which weighed several thousand pounds and were powered by a horizontal tub-style water wheel below the mill.

Rikard began rebuilding the mill in 1858, and there is some dispute as to how long it took to rebuild the structure. Some say that it took three years, while others say that it wasn’t finished until 1868. The “new” mill was built from cypress, heart pine, yellow poplar and white oak.

Locals flocked to the mill to have corn and other grains ground into flour, and it also served as a social gathering place where people discussed the latest news, shared meals and swam in the creek.

Rikard died of typhoid fever in 1880, and the mill passed to his daughter, Mary Rikard, and her husband, Holly Middleton Forte. They ran the mill together until their son, John Dennis Forte, took over.

John Forte, who was a longtime teacher and was elected Monroe County’s Superintendent of Schools in 1900, installed a new metal turbine at Rikard’s Mill in 1905. The turbine was manufactured by The James Leffel & Co. of Springfield, Ohio, which has been designing and making hydraulic turbines since 1862.

Sometime in the 1930s, John Forte replaced the 48-inch millstones with 36-inch millstones. I’ve read that the 36-inch stones can still be seen at the mill today and that flint composite stones are currently in use at the mill.

John Forte retired in 1921 and served as the full-time millwright at Rikard’s Mill until his death in 1966. During his 45 years as the full-time millwright, John Forte and his son, Maurice Forte, ran the mill together for a number of years.

In 1993, Maurice Fort and Mack Albert Rikard agreed to preserve the mill for historical purposes and began restoring the mill and dam. The mill reopened in 1994, complete with a covered bridge gift shop. The gift shop features arts and crafts by local residents as well as books and souvenirs.

A 19th century-style blacksmith shop opened on the property in 1995 and features authentic blacksmith equipment used by former blacksmith, Peter L. Shamburger. A barn and mule-driven cane syrup mill opened in 1997. The mill was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on Oct. 7, 1998.

A carriage house was moved to the park in 1999. Restoration of the mill was completed in 1999 and a “pioneer cabin” that doubles as a classroom for workshops was built on the site in 2000. The park is now owned and operated by the Monroe County Heritage Museum.

About 2,500 people visit the park each year, including nearly 1,000 students who attend “Pioneer Days” at the park each November. “Pioneer Days” is a two-day event for student groups that gives young people the chance to see workers in period clothing demonstrate skills like quilt-making, fabric-weaving, blacksmithing, milling and syrup-making. A “Cane Syrup Making Day” is also held at the park on the second Saturday of each November.

For those of you interested in visiting the mill, it’s located at 4116 State Highway 265 North, between Monroeville and Camden. The mill is 22 miles north of Monroeville and just five miles north of the Town of Beatrice. From Interstate Highway 65, the mill is about 35 miles west of the Greenville-Pine Apple exit (Exit 128).

In the end, I hope to get the chance to check out the upcoming “Ghost Stories at Rikard’s Mill” event. Maybe I’ll see some of you there.