There is a new experience to walking through the entrance to North Little Rock's Old Mill at T. R. Pugh Memorial Park: The sound of rushing water.
A cascading waterfall over a 50-foot-wide, natural stone wall fills the air with splashes of water hitting the rocks and then rippling into the park's pond and lake.
"Oh, my gosh, the sound," said Pat Griggs, a Lakewood Lake No. 2 resident just down the road from the park, at Lakeshore Drive and Fairway Avenue, who attended Wednesday's grand opening of the waterfall.
Griggs takes her grandson, Steele Kennon, 7, to the city park "all the time," she said. The sound of the rushing water and the new clarity of the pond water -- a result of the recent removal of silt build-up over the years -- will bring a different experience, she said. For one, her grandson can now clearly see the turtles and the fish in the water.
"The water being clear," Griggs said. "He will sit forever and look at them swimming around. Now with this, bring a hammock."
About 400 feet of 6-inch pipe and a 10-horsepower pump that were installed this summer will pull water from the park's lake below the Old Mill and circulate it back up past the mill to form the waterfall. The water flows one way into a stream and another to a pond with a working fountain next to the replica gristmill. The waterfall pushes the pond's waters through a sluice box that pours onto and turns the mill's water wheel.
The motor is the third one tried to give the waterfall enough power to not only be able to turn the heavy water wheel but also fill the park with the sounds of water, city Parks and Recreation Director Terry Hartwick said. The latest motor was installed Monday morning in time for the grand opening, he said.
"We can really hear it now," Hartwick said. "There is more of a water flow. You can hear it as soon as you walk in."
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Restoring the waterfall marks the first time it's fully worked since the late 1940s or early 1950s, Hartwick said.
Bert Turner, president of the Friends of the Old Mill volunteer group that helps to maintain the park, told the gathering of almost 50 people Wednesday that he was only going to use the word "pump" one time to describe the workings of the waterfall.
"Because this is magic," Turner said, gesturing toward the waterfall. "This was a lot more difficult than it looks like."
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said he was "wowed" by the waterfall's restoration.
"Our goal every day when we come to work is how can we make North Little Rock a little bit more special," Smith said. "The Old Mill, of course, is the No. 1 tourist attraction we have here. This makes it even better. This puts it over the top."
The Old Mill is best known for its brief appearance in the opening sequence of the 1939 film Gone With the Wind that won eight Academy Awards, plus two honorary awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Old Mill was placed onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The famed replica gristmill and the scenic park setting have made it a popular location for both tourists and city residents alike, and a favorite spot of both amateur and professional photographers. Because the park is open daily to the public and is free, the number of visitors isn't counted. The North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau has estimated, through tracking people on Facebook, that 300,000 people come within 2 miles of the Old Mill each year.
"This is just going to add to it," Turner said of the new waterfall. "I think we'll get a lot more people out here."
Metro on 09/19/2019