McAllister's Mill

McAllister's Mill. A Generational Story. , A few hundred yards in front of you, on private property along Rock Creek, are the ruins of a stone grist mill purchased in 1822 by James McAllister. There, McAllister, and his family operated a stop along the Underground Railroad, providing temporary shelter to hundreds of the enslaved seeking freedom in the North. Freedom seekers were rested, fed, and guided away from bounty hunters who patrolled this area above the Mason-Dixon Line., Part of a network of secret locations around Adams County, the mill was the site of a meeting of local abolitionists on July 4, 1836. The attendees, sons and grandsons of Revolutionary War soldiers, unanimously adopted 14 anti-slavery resolutions, one of which proclaimed: "If liberty is the right of all men, no human being can be rightfully held in slavery." The mill fell into disrepair soon after the war and was eventually dismantled. Today, the site is part of The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom., During the Battle of Gettysburg Union artillery was placed on Powers Hill behind you. On the afternoon of July 2, Union reinforcements rested here before moved to the other side of the Federal line. Hundreds of Union soldiers sought refuge around the McAllister farmhouse and mill; many were buried on the property. , In the decades after the war, the area surrounding the McAllister's Mill site became the Gettysburg borough dump. Later, a miniature golf course opened here. The site was restored in 2024 by the American Battlefield Trust.