Nora Mill Granary, Grinding Since 1876

Most old mills in Georgia are either ruins or exhibits. Nora Mill Granary still works. It sits on the Chattahoochee just south of Helen, and it has been grinding corn since 1876 with the same kind of 1,500-pound French Burr stones that were installed when it was built. If you want to see how a Georgia mountain valley went from gold fever to farming, this building tells it in one place.

This page is the history. For hours, what to buy and how to visit, see the Nora Mill visitor guide.

Every date below comes from the mill's own history page and the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

John Martin came to Georgia to mine for gold. Unlike most prospectors, he settled in the Sautee-Nacoochee Valley for good. By the time he built the mill in 1876, the big rush was almost fifty years behind the valley, and the people who stayed needed corn ground and a place to sell it. The mill gave them both.

Gold had reshaped this valley a generation earlier. Our Nacoochee Valley history covers the 1828 discovery and what followed for the Cherokee. A mill like this one, run on river power and farm corn, was what came next.

The mill is a large four-story building. A 100-foot wooden raceway carries river water to a water turbine, not a vertical water wheel, and the turbine drives the stones. The stones are French Burr stones, which were made in the Marne Valley region of France. They are usually built up from sections of quartz cemented together and bound with iron bands rather than cut from a single block, and millers prized them for finer grinding, according to the general history of the French burr millstone.

These days the mill takes in corn from a Kentucky farm and unloads it straight into grain bins that hold 8,000 to 10,000 pounds. From there the corn is weighed, ground and separated into cornmeal and grits, then bagged on the main floor. The mill says it grinds fresh grain with no additives or preservatives.

The river keeps the mill honest. The dam, raceway and penstock were rebuilt in recent years, and the mill still depends on the flow of the Chattahoochee.

Dr. Lamartine G. Hardman bought the mill in 1902 and renamed it for his sister. Hardman was a physician born in Commerce, a wealthy farmer who owned about 10,000 acres of peach and apple orchards across seven Georgia counties, and later governor from 1927 to 1931, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. His family held the mill until 1998. Down the road, his Nacoochee Valley estate is now Hardman Farm State Historic Site.

By the early 1980s the mill had been through a string of millers. Ron Fain, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, worked with the Hardman family to take it over with his parents and became the miller. His youngest daughter Joann learned milling from him. Together they developed recipes the mill is still known for, including its trademarked Georgia Ice Cream grits, Dixie Ice Cream and Pioneer's Porridge, and they opened the gift shop beside the mill.

Ron died in June 2001, and Joann took over the business. The mill now runs with the third and fourth generations of the family, including her son Joe Vandegriff, who serves as the miller, and his wife Addi, who help manage daily operations.

The mill is at 7107 South Main Street, about a mile south of downtown Helen, and it is open every day. Pair it with the Nacoochee Mound, the Sautee Nacoochee Center and Stovall Mill Covered Bridge for a half day of valley history.