The Old Mill at Hudson Mills Metro Park

A favorite go-to place for Mid-Michiganders on weekends is Hudson Mills Metro Park near Dexter. Located on North Territorial Road where it crosses the Huron River, this park has just about everything: bike trails, canoeing, disc golf, eighteen-hole golf course, fishing, group camp, hiking trails, kayaking, mini-museum, nature trails, picnic areas, playground area with slides & swings, refreshments, and softball diamonds.

With all that going on for all members of the family, the one thing that is of most interest to me is a crumbling, dirty, almost non-existent, hidden, old 1827 mill on the other side of the river.

The Historical Marker that was placed in 1971 reads: "This hamlet developed around the mills which were located here to utilize the great water power of the Huron River. Cornelius Osterhout built a sawmill here about 1827, followed in 1846 by a grist-mill in which three men produced six thousand barrels of flour a year. Later a cider mill and a plaster mill became part of the complex. In 1882 a wood pulp producer, the Birkett Manufacturing Co., acquired the mill property. Across the Huron the remains of the Birkett mill and dam are still visible."

There was a town called Hudson Mills near the intersection of Dexter-Pinckney Road and North Territorial Road...in fact, it still shows up on some maps. The old 1841 cemetery just south of the intersection is full of residents of the former town. Read a little more about the former town of Hudson here.

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