Arcadia Mill — Attraction in Milton

Visited here while in town for a conference and needed somewhere to stretch my legs after "death by PowerPoint". This is a great place to spend an hour or more depending on your walking speed and if you pack a lunch or whatever. The boardwalk and the trails are very well maintained. The visitor center is very well laid out, depicting the history of the mill and the young man inside was very helpful and knowledgeable. If you walk the boardwalk loop and go as far is where the nature trails begin, you end up walking about 1.25 miles and is navigable with a stroller. The nature trails however are not very conducive to pushing a stroller as a majority of the trails are covered with shallow root systems of several varieties of trees. It would not be fun for the parent or especially the child in the stroller. They also have an active honey bee hive just off one of the trails just past the steel bridge so watch out for that, but it is very cool to see. Really glad that I decided to stop in...

I had a really good time here. I was here for an hour and a half, because I had other errands after the mill. But, I suggest to really see and enjoy everything, stay for about 2 to 2 and half hours. That's what I'm planning to do this go around. I bought a pair of binoculars to take with me when I go back to the mill to get a closer look of the creatures and trees and ruins there. Everything is so beautiful. So historical. Good place for walking, taking kids and pets, and learning about the history there is in Milton. The staff members were very nice and helpful. The bugs didn't bother me. My grandma said to use vasaline (petroleum jelly) on my face to keep bugs away. I also used sun block for the sun. The vasaline works better than bug spray, and is helpful to know if you can't handle...

Descended from millwrights on two different branches of the family tree, I've always been fascinated with them. My great grandfather owned and operated a mill in Alabama. My grandfather immigrated to Jay, north of Milton in the 1920s. At any rate, I last visited in 2008, on my last visit with my grandmother. We brought her here, as she had not yet visited but had read about it in the paper. I personally enjoyed the engineering involved, as Florida, despite all its water, has little in the way of high ground, not making it ideal for the types of early mills built in other parts of the country. I've also been a longtime fan of the UWF Historic Trust, having written about and volunteered with the excavation and conservation of the EP1 shipwreck down in Pensacola...