Nora Mill Granary

Nora Mill is one of the few places in the Helen area where the history is also the business. The mill was built in 1876 and still grinds corn on its original 1,500-pound French Burr stones, and the front of the building is a country store. You can browse the shelves, taste samples from the kitchen the mill keeps for that purpose, and take home a bag of grits that was ground a short walk away.

It sits at 7107 South Main Street, about a mile south of downtown Helen, on the Chattahoochee. The full story is in our Nora Mill history.

Phone 706-878-2375 or 800-927-2375. Hours checked with the mill on October 8, 2026; call ahead on holidays.

The mill sells what it grinds, plus a country store. Cornmeal and grits are the reason most people stop.

The mill is a four-story building beside the river. A 100-foot wooden raceway carries water from the Chattahoochee to a water turbine, which turns the stones. The mill's own history says it uses a turbine rather than a vertical water wheel. The dam, raceway and penstock were rebuilt in recent years, and a new porch and deck now overlook the river.

Corn arrives from a Kentucky farm and goes into bins that hold 8,000 to 10,000 pounds. Then it's weighed, ground, separated and bagged on the main floor. Gold miner John Martin built the mill, Dr. Lamartine G. Hardman bought it in 1902 and named it for his sister, and the Fain family has run it since the 1980s.

You're in the Nacoochee Valley, so keep going. The mound and Hardman Farm are a couple of miles away, the Old Sautee Store is a few miles up the road, and the Sautee Nacoochee Center has free museums. Our Nacoochee Valley history ties the stops together.

For a Helen-area lunch before or after, browse our restaurants guide.

It can be a quick stop if all you want is a bag of grits, or longer if you linger over the samples and the river. The order that works: start at the shelves, ask what's in the sample kitchen, then take your purchases out to the deck.