American Reunion|Costley Mill Park — The Woods Hollywood Keeps Coming Back To

Rockdale County's film office keeps a list of what has shot at Costley Mill Park and it runs long: The Vampire Diaries, Sleepy Hollow, The Originals, Constantine, Greenleaf, Identity Thief, Devil's Knot, Endless Love, Coat of Many Colors, Thank You For Your Service. American Reunion is on it too. The park sits on Costley Mill Road off Georgia Highway 138, up in the northern end of the county, on Big Haynes Creek.

The mill it is named for belonged to James Luther Thomas Costley. Grist mill, sawmill, planing mill and cotton gin all ran off this water. The works survived Sherman, then burned in 1901, were rebuilt in 1904, and burned for the last time in 1973. Syl and Beverly Bowman bought the property in May 1982 and held it for thirty-five years before Rockdale County took it over in June 2017.

What is left is precisely why crews keep coming: woods, rock outcrops, a small beach on the water, walking trails, the remains of the old mill and a set of faux-historic structures the previous owners put up. Point a camera at it and you can be in almost any decade you need.

Walk down to the creek and the mill remains sit right at the water line. They are the only thing on the property that was here before the cameras, and they will still be here after.