The mill ruins are part of Walnut Grove Farm Historic District located about a half-mile east of Shawsville on Sh 609. The mill appears ton have met with some misfortune since the mid-1990's. It was reported to still have its overshot wheel and much of the milling machinery intact, inside about 1990. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 01/10/1991.

The ruins, located about 1500' further east of the other farm buildings and farmhouses, was built approximately around 1910 and was used primarily to produce graham flour, an ingredient in an early health food, graham crackers.

Later on, the mill was used to grind animal feed for the farm livestock. The 2.5 story frame & stuccoed mill was still standing in the early 1990's, stopping its feed grinding operation in the 1950's.

The mill was built by Capt. David Harvey Black Barger soon after he purchased the property in 1890. Barger retired to his native Montgomery Co. after making his fortune in railroads and in coal mining near Bluefield, West Virginia. *Update: The biographical data on Capt. Barger, my mother's father, had some mistakes that I would like to correct. To begin with, he was never a military officer -- he was only a young lad during the Civil War. His title was the courtesy title customarily given to the conductor of a train. During his career on the Norfolk & Western Railroad he advanced from station hand at New River (the small town near Radford Virginia, that he was born and raised in), to train conductor, to division superintendent, to claim agent for the entire railroad. He then left the N&W, around 1905, to get into the coal business in southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia. I was sorry to read that the mill had been destroyed by fire. It was still much in operation during my boyhood and I remember it well. Robert Lindsay Harvey 09/05/2009*

The mill contained three separate milling production operations: for Graham Flour, Corn Meal, and Buckwheat Flour. The mill was powered by a small diversion dam on top of a water falls on Boners Run. The early 20th century mill was of wood frame and stucco construction, and stood on the site of Sower's Mill. The mill was part of the Walnut Grove Farm and the Walnut Grove Historic District.

The 30 foot diameter by 3 1/2 foot face I-X-L Steel Overshoot Water Wheel driving the mill of Capt. D. W. Barger at Shawsville, Virginia, that was pictured in the I-X-L Overshoot Water Wheel Company which became the Fitz Water Wheel Company, Hanover, Pennsylvania, and Martinsburg, West Virginia. The mill of Capt. D. W. Barger, at Shawsville, Virginia, pictured in the classic 1928 catalog of the Fitz Water Wheel Company, Hanover, Pennsylvania, catalog shows a mill with a clerestory roof. That is the only grist or flour mills that \I have ever seen with a clerestory roof. It was more common with textile mills.

Fire destroyed the mill on Thursday night of October 18th, 2007. The mill fire brought in fire crews from Christiansburg, Riner, Fort Lewis and Masons Cove. They were not able to draw enough water from the small stream next to the mill, and used a car wash on Roanoke Road to fill their tanker trucks. The mill had become, over the years, a favorite pull-over space just off of Route 11 for young people to drink alcohol. The family who owned the mill has expressed interest in rebuilding the mill.