The sound of hundreds of apples tumbling down conveyor belts and being ground by presses echoed throughout the rustic-barn house when Jennifer Rheaume took her 18-month-old daughter Seasan for her first visit to Uncle John's Cider Mill.

"We stopped by for a snack," Rheaume, 20, an MSU building construction management junior said as Seasan scooped handfuls of a cinnamon-sugared doughnuts into her mouth and washed it down with a small cup of apple cider. "She really likes the cider."

The cider mill, located at 8614 N. US 127 in St. Johns, began in 1960 as a fledgling pick-your-own apples stand. Owners Carolyn and John Beck transformed the stand into a cider mill 12 years later at the request of customers. Since that time, the 200-acre orchard has grown into a multi-faceted, all-things-apples and entertainment business with the country feel of an old farmhouse, said Manager Becky Lewis.

Rheaume and Seasan are a few of the more than 300,000 people who visit the mill each fall for hay wagon rides, a trip through the haunted "Crowville" and live musical entertainment on the weekends. Schools and the public tour to watch the cider being made and also to check out other seasonal specialties such as candied apples, a pumpkin patch, doughnuts and apple baked goods.

"The flow of people is unreal during the fall," Lewis said. "Every weekend keeps getting busier and busier. We're now operating in full swing."

The spring and summer months are spent stocking up the cider mill's gift shops, landscaping the orchards, hosting craft shows and harvesting fresh produce such as peaches, cherries and corn.

Owned by the Beck family for five generations and more than 135 years, the cider mill recently renovated buildings on the orchard and added several entertainment attractions to help diversify the uses of their crops.

Last year, the mill branched out with new attractions for wine connoisseurs when an old dairy barn was converted into a winery. This season, several other additions were made to the orchard, such as dinning areas, a spook house and an 11-acre corn maze in the shape of a scarecrow.

"This place has grown so much," East Lansing resident Anne Benham said as she sat on the wagon ride with her three children, Andrew, 11 and Tommy and Lindsay, both 7. "It's 20 times what it used to be."

Andrew said he visits the cider mill with his family at least twice a year and he always looks forward to seeing the orchard's latest attraction.

"I like going on the new stuff, like the maze, that I've never seen before," Andrew said.

After the tractor ride, Benham and her children traveled to the cider mill's pie barn to watch the cider being made.

"Throughout the year, the cider tastes different," Lewis said of the cider mill's specialty. "But the best cider is made early in the season because it is nice and sweet."

The Benham's sunburned faces peered over a balcony to watch conveyor belts of sorted apples head to the apple presses to be liquidated into cider.

From Labor Day until the Christmas season, the cider mill employs 125 people to help bottle cider in the pie barn or make buttermilk doughnuts and hand-dipped caramel apples.

For the last 15 years, St. Johns resident James O'Connor has worked in all areas of the orchard. A doughnut maker during the week, and wagon driver during the weekend, O'Connor said he most enjoys his behind-the-scenes work at the cider mill. His wife Dorris hands out apple samples in the pie barn.

"Hauling apples is the most fun," O'Connor said of his weekly road trips to other farms in the area to transport apples back to the cider mill. "I enjoy fall, nature and being outside."

In 2003, the mill began catering to adult pallets when the winery with a tasting bar opened.

About 25 percent of the 20 different varieties grapes, cherries and apples of the cider mill's fruit wines are made on location in distilleries, which patrons can view through glass windows, Beck said.

"Every wine is different," Manager Dede Beck said. "Some wines can take 30 days to make, and some can take three years. It all just depends on what you are looking for."

Mount Pleasant resident Mike Peegan said he visited the cider mill for a fun outing with his family and was surprised to see a new winery at the orchard.

"I like more homemade types of wines," Peegan said at the tasting bar after sampling four different wine varieties before deciding to take home two bottles of Uncle John's Harvest Apple. "This is the stuff you can't get at a bar."

Marge Lang of Garden City, Mich., said a visit to the mill was the perfect pit stop during her drive back home.

"It's a good little tourist attraction," Lang said after she purchased a box of apple turnovers from the bakery. "It's a nice break off of the highway."