Jay O'Neil, board chair of the Butte Creek Mill Foundation, with the 100-plus-year-old stone grinder inside the mill. 

Rogue Valley motorists can help rebuild a piece of local history by gassing up their vehicles.

For the entire month of March, a portion of every gasoline sale at Eagles Market and Gas in Eagle Point will support the restoration of the historic Butte Creek Mill.

The mill, which has been slowly rising from the ashes of a Christmas Day fire eight years ago, is now $500,000 away from paying for its $2.7 million rebuild, said John Parsons, a member of the Butte Creek Mill Foundation, which was formed to bring the mill back to life.

Bob Russell, the former owner of the mill, remembers the fire all too well.

“The phone rang at 4:10 a.m. They said, ‘Your alarm went off.’ I didn’t think anything of it. Went downstairs — I live across the street — and my living room was orange from the flames. It was surreal,” he said.

“The National Register of Historic Places, they said we had to have 25% of the original building to get on the list. We made the cut,” Russell said.

Walking through the country store Friday and into the mill beyond, Russell provided a stream of information. Throughout the 150-year-old mill, the origin story of every antique, beam and board was on the tip of his tongue.

He called them by name and remembered them all — some salvaged and restored, miraculously spared, or replaced with care.

“Look at that one, these beams are so thick the fire only burned a quarter of an inch. Isn’t that fun?” he said, pointing out a thick layer of black char across one beam. “Well, maybe it’s not ‘fun,’ but … ”

He shook his head and turned to descend into the basement where the millstones work to turn grain to flour.

The sound of the creek running just underfoot was gentle. When all 12 feet of water covers the turbine, it pulls it into motion, then the belts and millstones with it.

The basement is where much of the money from Eagle’s Market and Gas will go, because it’s where much of the work remains to be done.

Russell pointed to the concrete floor and described a hoped-for wood floor over the top of it. He pointed to the stone walls, once an elegantly rustic space used to hold elaborate dinners and raise money for Chamber of Commerce fundraisers.

Now the stones are stained with black steaks from the flames.

The floor and foundation end

in one place, revealing the rocks of the creek bed, a trickle of water, and a few blackberry tendrils below.

“We’ll cover that,” Russell said.

The rest of the mill and the country store are back to life for the most part — in some ways to the determinant of the nonprofit’s efforts to finish the project, said Parsons.

“One of the things we’re struggling with right now is people think we’re done,” he said.

The foundation wanted to finish the Country Store and the mill to the point that it could churn out its beloved pancake and waffle mixes. They’ve now added products like a beer bread mix, “confetti soup” and scone mixes.

By bringing in customers to the store, the foundation brings in funding to keep the project going.

By giving tours, visitors are sometimes moved to make donations.

But the project has a long life ahead of it.

There’s electrical work left to do throughout the building, the basement’s refinishing, and a planned exhibit room to hold historical artifacts and public events are some of the projects.

Russell looked at the future of the historic mill with a grounded joy.

“It’s going to be a project forever. There’s always something to do, to improve it. It’s all about telling the story,” he said.

Eagles Market and Gas is at 10668 Highway 62, Eagle Point.