A spring branch boiling from beneath a rock in Oregon County prompted Clay Turner to haul a 25-foot tall steel mill wheel, in pieces, by mule train, to power a gristmill, sawmill, and electric light for the town of Surprise (so named because the townspeople thought the town too small to be granted its own post office. But it was. Surprise!) Now the wheel stands alone in the spring branch a short walk from Surprise school, whose last graduating class was in 1945.