McDonalds Mill, Virginia

McDonalds Mill is an unincorporated community in the northeastern section of Montgomery County, Virginia. Located approximately 10 miles east of Blacksburg, Virginia along State Route 785, McDonalds Mill lies at the floor of the Catawba Valley and is bound on the south by Paris Mountain and to the north by Gallion Ridge.

History

The current McDonald's Mill was built in 1861. The current owners, Ned and Janet Yost, want to preserve the mill and the land around it so that others can get a glimpse of life on the North Fork of the Roanoke River as it was when the region was first occupied by immigrants from the British Isles. The origin of the creek that eventually becomes the Roanoke River is just a few miles from the mill. The fledgling stream gathered water quickly from springs and hollows and in a short distance, was big enough to make a mill pond inside the current Montgomery County line. The stream was dammed and a race was constructed of lumber sawed for nearby forest to carry the water to the top of the mill wheel several hundred yards downstream. According to Yost, the mill was established in the 1790s and was operated by five generations of McDonalds. Two buildings preceded the current structure that Yost purchased in 1952.

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