Joshua Lee

Joshua Lee built the first grist mill on this location in c1830 in what was Lowndes County. He owned five and one half land lots (2.690 acres) which were not yet free of Indians. He built a low-level dam across a stream flowing through his property. The water flooded the land around the ancient cypress trees where a natural pocosin existed probably as a result of tidal action of the ocean thousands of years ago. His mill afforded the farmers a place to grind their grain and gin their cotton without going a great distance. The Mill was located on the old stagecoach road from Waycross to Thomasville. Farmers and merchants who gathered at this location established it as a trade center. A post office in 1838 established the town of Alapaha, but changed to Milltown in 1857 and later to Lakeland in 1925. The legacy of this property is the remembrance of the pioneers who came to this land and created a community, and of their descendants who wish to protect the land.