The Legendary Lights at Clifton Mill

The Legendary Lights at Clifton Mill

The light display starts the day after Thanksgiving and is on every night through January 1st.
On Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve  and New Year's Day we close at 8 pm.

Gates open every day at 5 pm, the lights come on at 6 pm.
Gates close at 9:30 pm; lights go off 30 minutes after gates close.
On Christmas Eve, Christmas & New Year's Eve we close at 8 pm.

For over 20 years Clifton Mill has celebrated the Christmas season in a very special way.  Our light display is one of the country's finest with over 3.5 million lights illuminating the mill, the gorge, the riverbanks, trees and bridges.  There is even a 100 foot "waterfall" of twinkling lights.  The flip of one switch turns all the lights on at once transforming night into a fantastical winter wonderland. 

The lights have been featured in Midwest Living and Ohio Magazine.  There is a Miniature Village, a Santa Claus Museum and a spectacular synchronized lights and music show that features the old Covered Bridge.  Every night until the night before Christmas Eve you can peek into Santa's Workshop to see a live Santa at work and then, every 15 minutes or so, watch him check his list and go up the chimney to load his sleigh.

Historic Clifton Mill is one of the largest water powered grist mills still in existence.  The first mill at this site was built in 1802 by Owen Davis, a Revolutionary War soldier and frontiersman miller.  The mill was built in this location to take advantage of the natural power of the concentrated water funneled into the gorge.  Owen Davis and his son-in-law, General Benjamin Whiteman also built a saw mill and a distillery.  Soon a village known as Davis Mills sprang up around the mills.  The Little Miami River powered five other mills that were built within a mile of Clifton Mill; a woolen mill, saw mill, paper mill, barrel mill and another grist mill.  Clifton Mill is the only one still standing.