Rio Mills

The 19th-century mill village of Rio Mills stood 600 yards west of here, where the former Harrisonburg-Charlottesville Turnpike crossed the South Fork of the Rivanna River. Following the Battle of Rio Hill on 29 February 1864, Union General George Armstrong Custer burned the covered bridge and gristmill at Rio Mills. Immediately rebuilt under the direction of Abraham L. Hildebrand, the gristmill continued to grind wheat and corn for the Confederacy. The milling operation apparently closed down soon after 1900.