Starr' s Mill

The red-painted Starr’s Mill, in Fayette County just a mile south of Peachtree City, is one of the most historic, picturesque and famously photographed sites in the state. The Mill sits along what was once a portion of the old McIntosh Trail, a famous Indian trail that ran from the Ocmulgee River on the eastern border of Butts County in Georgia onward to Alabama and beyond.

Starr’s Mill has been featured in numerous magazines as well as the movie "Sweet Home Alabama” starring Reese Witherspoon. It also is the site of one of Fayette County’s most bizarre and unsolved murders mysteries. On November 1, 1966, George Lynch, who was the mill caretaker for many years, was found unconscious at the mill. He died the next day. An autopsy determined he had suffered a blow to the head. Oddly enough, nine years earlier in 1957 on the very same day, Lynch’s wife, Fannie Lou Lynch, had died at Starr’s Mill when a car hit her as she walked across the bridge.

You can visit Starr’s Mill any day of the year. There are picnic tables and lights. Fishing is permitted in the mill pond with a Georgia license.


Below is an essay about Starr’s Mill from The Flint River: A Recreational Guidebook to the Flint River and Environs by Fred Brown and Sherri Smith Brown.

At one time numerous gristmills for grinding grain operated along the Flint River and its tributaries above the Fall Line. These were some of the region’s earliest industry. Starr’s Mill, located on Whitewater Creek in Fayette County, is one of the few gristmills that remain standing in the area.

In all, 16 property owners and three mills have been part of the Starr’s Mill history. Hananiah Gillcoat, the property’s second owner, constructed the first mill sometime between 1822 and 1827, just after the region was opened to settlement in 1821. Records indicate that the second millhouse to stand on the site burned to the ground around 1900, supposedly by arson. In 1907 the property’s 13th owner, William T. Glower, built the present wooden millhouse, on the same foundation, and the concrete dam.

Over the years, the mill, as well as the community that grew up around it, became known as Starr’s Mill, after 10th owner Hilliard M. Starr, who acquired the property in 1866. An 1870 census lists H. M. Starr Mill as having a maximum capacity of 100 bushels per day, $5,000 capital, two water wheels and 30 horsepower.

A cotton gin that served the community once stood at the opposite end of the dam. It was capable of ginning one bale of cotton per hour. Gates on each end of the dam opened and closed to regulate the necessary flow of water needed to drive the gin’s machinery, as well as the mill. The gin operated until the mid-1940s and was blown down by a wind storm in 1955. In 1959 Starr’s Mill ceased production and the remains of the old cotton gin were town down.

Like other mill ponds, the mill pond at Starr’s Mill was the center of community activities. Fishing, swimming, camping and family reunions took place around the pond. The April 15, 1904, Fayetteville News reported that Col. A. O. Blalock caught the biggest fish of the season, a 17 pound carp, at Starr’s pond, “a fine pull as the water was ten feet deep where he caught it.”

In 1991, Fayette County purchased the mill for use as a water system reservoir. You aren’t allowed to swim there anymore, but on a June day, fishermen trying their hand can still be seen fishing among the lily-padded tail waters of the Starr’s Mill dam.

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