Prater’s Mill Country Fair to return this fall

Published 1:03 pm Wednesday, February 12, 2025

The Prater’s Mill Country Fair will return the weekend of Oct. 11-12, according to Lynne Cabe, president of the Prater’s Mill Foundation, which has organized the fair for more than five decades.

The fair celebrates the music, food and culture of North Georgia and the Appalachian region. It attracts about 8,000 visitors each year.

The fair was canceled in 2024 because of work at the mill property.

Whitfield County received a $2.1 million grant in 2023 from Georgia’s Improving Neighborhood Outcomes in Disproportionately Impacted Communities program to renovate portions of the Prater’s Mill Historic Site, which is south of Highway 2.

Since 2010 Whitfield County has been the owner of the site with the Prater’s Mill Foundation occupying it through a lease. The foundation has worked for more than 50 years to preserve and restore the site.

“We have been working with vendors and exhibitors and plan to make this one (the fair) over the top,” Cabe told the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners during their meeting this week.

Cabe said the mill will not be open during the fair. The mill has not been a working commercial gristmill in several decades but it had operated during the annual country fairs and some other events until the county closed the mill in 2023 because of concerns about the foundation of the building.

“We hope the mill will be open next year,” Cabe said. “We hope the whole situation with the dam and the mill site will be resolved by then.”

Flooding last year shifted the path of Coahulla Creek. County officials say the dam is now a safety hazard as people could be tempted to walk on it and fall into the turbulent water. They have talked about demolishing the dam. Foundation officials say the dam is essential and want to preserve it.

In addition to the mill, built by Benjamin Prater in 1855, the site includes the 1898 country store, Shugart Cotton Gin and Westbrook Barn. The mill is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the site is a Whitfield County historic site.

Cabe updated the commissioners on the foundation’s work in 2024.

While the fair may have been canceled, the site hosted a number of events, such as the First Day Hike on Jan. 1,  performances of “Romeo and Juliet” by the Conasauga Shakespeare Coalition, and the Boys & Girls Clubs Veterans Day Road Race, as well as private events such as a baby shower and family reunion.

Also, Eagle Scouts built two new foot bridges on the site’s nature trail.