Florida's largest sugar mill was burned during the Seminole War by the Seminole Indians in 1836. The mill enjoyed a run of 16 years, built by Charles Wilhelm Bulow and John Joachim Bulow in 1820.

Steam used in the cane crushing procedure and also to operate an non-extant saw mill was produced from water supplied by the now filled-in well.

One of the chimineys of the sugar mill used to provide the draft necessary to get the furnace heat high enough to satisfactorily cook the sugar juice through the five stages of kettles.

Bulow Ville January 26, 1831. The long steel boiler was located to the right behind the wall. It supplied steam for the engine on the second floor, right side, that operated the large gears for the cane crushing (check the Yulee Sugar Mill page for those photo of the cane crushing equipment-soon to come). The arch in the far wall is at the bottom of a chiminey to provide the draft for the boiler.

A photo of the mill trough a twisted live oak. The cane crushing and cooking kettle area to the left and the storage and loading area to the right through the large arch.

Cane was conveyered to the second floor, crushed, the crushed cane/"bagasse" hauled away, and the juice collected into settling vats. The juice started in the "grande" kettle/the coolest, and proceeded right to left, by hand ladleling, to the "propre", the "flambeau", the "strop", and finally the "batterie" kettle. The batterie kettle was the smallest and hottest, the juice by now a syrup. It was here that the syrup arrived at the "strike" or sugar stage.

After the "strike" stage, the sugar was ladled onto a trough that lead to wooden cooling vats. The hardened sugar was sliced with spades, carried in tubs to the purgery/curing room, then packed into wooden barrels/hogsheads. This warm curing room atmosphere for 20 to 30 days, enabled the molasses to drip into a cistern for collection to be sold to rum manufacturers. The hogsheads were topped by other molasses-less sugar and stored.

The second story floor of this section/warehouse was used for the storage of the hogsheads. The hogsheads were lowered onto wagons pulled through the arches, hauled to a landing, perhaps on Bulow Creek near the site of the Bulow Plantation House, and boated on down to the Tomoka River and today's Intercoastal Waterway to ports such as Jacksonville, Savannah, St Augustine, and points beyond.

An artists rendition of a sugar mill in Louisiana, with the approximate dimensions of the Bulow Mill. They may have been very similar. This photo taken from an interpretive display at the Bulow Sugar Mill ruins. Much information as to the mills operation and sugar making adapted from signage placed along the ruins trail by the State of Florida.

Another view of the storage/warehouse part of the ruins with the actual crushing and cooking and cooling of the sugar taking place to the right of the photo and rear of center.