14 minute read
Echoes from the Past: The Story of the Echo Flour Mill
Echoes From the Past: The Story of the Echo Flour Mill
by Marguerite J. Wright
In the name of progress, another superhighway is being constructed and one more historic landmark has been torn down to make way for it. Within the past year the old Echo Flour Mill has disappeared from the scene.
The mill was located one mile east of Echo, Utah, at the west end of colorful and historic Echo Canyon, a canyon which has played an important role in the history of Utah — from the Indian and mountain man to the pioneer and railroader. The salmon-colored rock formations in the canyon have been carved by the weather into fantastic shapes and suggest equally fantastic names such as Steamboat Rock, Giant Teapot, Sphinx, Gibraltar, Sentinel, the Cathedral, and Pulpit Rock.
Sentinel Rock stood across the narrow canyon from the Echo Flour Mill. Steamboat Rock could be seen to the east of the mill across the canyon, and Pulpit Rock was near Echo. The latter had to be removed for safety reasons several years ago because it stood above and near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
By the 1850's stagecoaches were traveling through Echo Canyon. They were making regular trips from Independence and St. Joseph to Salt Lake City and soon afterwards to Sacramento. In 1853 a stagecoach station was erected in Echo. In 1860 the Pony Express, organized to carry mail from St. Joseph to Sacramento, went through Echo Canyon. A Pony Express station was established at Echo and another one 16 miles to the east at Castle Rock.
In this historic setting the construction of the Echo Flour Mill began in the spring of 1871. The mill stood for 93 years, and the following is the story of the mill as related by my father, Alfred Marlow Jones.
The mill was built near the stream of the Echo Creek. Nearby ran a single track of the Union Pacific Railroad that had been constructed in 1869. The mill was built for William L. Turpin of Taylorsville, by Ben Lamb; Lehi Henefer; William Batchelor; his son, Harry Batchelor; and William McMichael. The workmen camped nearby during construction. As the mill neared completion, Ben Lamb lived in the building. It took two years to build the three-story structure.
The mill was built for a total of $8,000. The lumber used in the construction was obtained three miles east of the site in Saw Mill Canyon, where a water-powered sawmill was operating. The wood throughout the mill was of red pine and native pine and was hauled from Saw Mill Canyon to the building site by teams and wagons. Square nails with square heads were used throughout the entire structure, and the corners were mortised with wooden pins to hold the building securely. After 93 years the entire frame structure and double floor planking were as sturdy as ever.
At the back of the mill, below ground level, a steel James LaFell 12- inch special water wheel in a penstock was located. This replaced the original overshot water wheel about 1893. The "new" wheel could develop 25 horsepower. At the time of demolition, the lower floor of the mill contained grain bins and machinery to drive its rollers. The second floor housed sifters, choppers, and rollers; the third floor had the elevatorheads and bran bins.
Flour was first ground at the mill in 1873 on two large, round stone burrs, weighing 500 to 600 pounds each. These burrs were imported from France in 1871, because at that time France was the best place to obtain stones hard enough to grind wheat without chipping and leaving grit in the flour.
An important step in the milling process was the softening of the outer shell of the wheat so it could be easily removed. To soften the wheat, water was obtained from a well in the basement of the mill. The water was poured into a wooden barrel and dripped onto the wheat before it was milled.
After the grinding process the grist had to be sifted. This was done on what was then called a bolting frame. After sifting, the different wheat products were stored in various storage bins and later bagged for customers.
In the spring of 1893, the mill was remodeled, and steel rollers and silk reels were installed for grinding flour. But the stone burrs remained in place and were used for chopping grain for cattle feed until about 1906 when they were removed and a chopper installed for this purpose. In 1906 the mill was remodeled again, and the silk reels were replaced with a sifter. About 1920 Frank Rippon built the wooden spouts in the mill. This machinery was used until the spring of 1942, when the last flour was ground. For the next several years, the mill continued to operate doing custom work. The chopper was run to make cattle feed and to clean wheat for planting.
The mill had several owners. William L. Turpin, the original owner, ran it until April 26, 1897. He then moved to Big Piney, Wyoming. His family remained at Echo until Mr. Turpin returned for them in November.
Heber Bennion, of Taylorsville, took possession of the mill and hired Ben Lamb to run it for him. Mr. Lamb received $25.00 a month and room and board. The following are excerpts from Heber Bennion's diary during the time he advanced financial aid to William Turpin to carry on his milling business.
On September 12, 1899, Alfred R. Jones and his brother, John S., bought the mill. In 1900 John Jones and his family moved from Henefer, Utah, to a house close to the mill.
Alfred Jones stayed at Echo working at the coal chutes, where he shoveled by hand about 20 tons of coal a day. This coal was used as fuel by the big engines of the Union Pacific Railroad. His wages were $1.75 a day, and from this he kept his family and saved enough to buy his share of the mill. On July 20, 1906, Alfred quit the railroad and moved to a house near the mill. At this time John Jones and his family moved to Echo (a distance of one mile) so the children could attend school.
Alfred and John continued to operate the mill until 1909, when John was called by the L.D.S. Church to go on a mission to Texas. He left his family in Echo and served two years in the mission field. After John returned, the Jones brothers continued to operate the mill until October 31, 1914. John and his family then moved to Honeyville, Utah, where he operated a flour mill.
Marlow Jones bought John's share in the Echo Mill. He and his father continued to operate the mill together until November 1, 1941, when Alfred died at his home by the mill.
The Echo Flour Mill was usually called The Grist Mill, because farmers would bring their grist (wheat) to have it ground into flour, bran, shorts, and germade. Wheat was seldom ground for money, but for a toll of the products of the grinding. Grain was usually cleaned for cash. Cleaning grain was to remove trash seeds before it was planted. When grain was chopped for cattle feed, the toll was 10 pounds for every 100 pounds chopped.
The miller would guarantee out of 60 pounds of wheat (the equivalent of 1 bushel) 30 to 32 pounds of flour, about 14 pounds of bran and shorts (shorts were sometimes called Red Dog), and about 5 pounds of germade (used for cereal). The rest of the wheat was chaff. Sometimes a bushel of very good wheat would make as much as 45 pounds of flour, but usually 34 to 36 pounds were obtained from a bushel of wheat. The miller's pay was the difference between the actual amount of wheat ground and the amount he guaranteed, which was usually 32 pounds. Sometimes on poor grain the pay from the grist was very small. If the grain was of poor quality, the guarantee was cut to 25 or 28 pounds of flour, with bran, etc., given the same rate of decrease.
Nineteen barrels of flour, weighing 196 pounds to a barrel, could be ground in 24 hours at the Echo Flour Mill. Many times in the fall of the year after the harwheat to be ground. Then, the mill ran night and day, with one man taking the day shift and another the night shift.
In 1910-11 flour sold for 50 to 75 cents for 100 pounds. In 1912 the price went to $1.25. Germade sold for 25 cents for 10 pounds. Farmers sold their wheat for 50 cents a bushel and made a profit on it.
During the early days of the mill, farmers brought grist in wagons pulled by oxen and horses. Four thousand pounds of wheat could be pulled by a four-horse team. Grain was brought from as far away as Fort Bridger, Millburne, and Burnt Fork, Wyoming. Mr. John M. Baxter, of Woodruff, Utah, came to the Echo Mill many times with an ox-drawn wagon. The round trip took him two weeks. Customers coming a great distance to the mill would camp in tents and wagons until their grist was finished, so they could return home with it.
Every fall one or two railroad cars of wheat were shipped to the mill from the Wellsville Co-op in Cache Valley. This was ground into flour and sold from the mill. Each carload of wheat was purchased from the Wellsville Co-op by the mill owners for approximately $1,000.
A fond recollection of mine is of my grandfather, Alfred Jones, with his clothes and moustache white with flour dust, carrying a small shining flour scoop full of flour to my grandmother's kitchen. There she would make a few loaves of bread to test someone's grist. The bread was baked in my grandmother's black, polished coal stove which was kept so immaculate one could hardly believe coal had been placed in it for heating. This same procedure of testing flour by bread-making is done in the large flour mills of today. Alfred Jones and his son were very proud of the flour they ground and wanted it to be the very best.
The mill supplied flour to stores in Echo and Coalville, and to the people living at the Grass Creek Mines and Devil's Slide.
Because water power was needed to run the mill, the original owner debated about building the mill on the Weber River or Echo Creek. The latter was decided upon because it was believed that the Echo Creek kept a more constant stream flow throughout the summer than the Weber River. This is difficult to believe because Echo Creek has been nearly dry for several years during the summer months. Three-and-a-half second feet of water were needed to turn the 25-horsepower wheel which ran the mill.
Because of the needed water power, a dirt-filled dam was constructed across Echo Creek behind the mill. This dam was washed out by a flood in 1906 and rebuilt again. Then, in 1911 the dam was again destroyed because of high water runoff. After this flood the well in the basement of the mill dried up, and water from an outside spring had to be carried by bucket for use in the milling process.
Soon after this disaster, a wooden dam and metal headgate were constructed about 1,400 feet east of the mill. Water was then piped to the mill in an underground 24-inch redwood pipe, held together with metal rings. This dam is still standing. As a young girl I had to make several trips a day to this headgate to rake leaves and debris off the screen so water could run into the pipe.
In 1915 a small water wheel, using about one or one-and-a-half second feet of water and generating about six horsepower, was added to the penstock. The water wheel generated electric lights for the mill, two homes, and the barns nearby. This was the first electricity in Echo; the first incandescent lights used in the area. Very few electric appliances were used at this time. Few women had electric irons; most of them ironed with a heavy cast-iron flatiron which was heated on a coal range.
It was sometimes my job to go into the mill and turn a small wheel which permitted water to enter the penstock. This action turned the lights on. This was done at twilight, when shadows turned sacks of flour and machinery into weird shapes. I was never very brave going through the mill in the evening to turn the wheel. After the lights were on, they were never turned off until morning. Two or three lights were left burning in the house, and one was always on over the entrance to the mill. These lights could not be shut off until someone turned the water wheel in the mill. There was no electricity during the day because water had to be conserved to run the mill and to generate electricity at night.
In the first log home, built close to the mill by William Turpin, and later in the two homes built by Alfred, John, and Marlow Jones, several children were born. Here they, with their parents, shared in the work of the mill and the surrounding farm. The children grew up with a keen interest in the machinery and workings of the mill.
The millpond also served as a source of entertainment for those living by the mill, as well as their visitors. There were swimming and fishing in the pond. One never forgot the thrill of catching a glimpse of a speckled trout as it darted through the clear water of the millpond.
Since the spring of 1871, many changes have taken place in and around the mill, but someone has lived there constantly since that time, until May 9, 1964, when Marlow Jones and his wife moved from the site to Midvale, Utah. In the summer of 1964, when he could see the destruction of the mill was inevitable, Marlow Jones became anxious to have as much of the mill preserved as possible. He donated the entire structure to the Man and His Bread Museum at Utah State University in Logan. All the machinery, elevators, windows, and doors were salvaged. The Special Collections Division of the Utah State University Library received the mill ledgers for the period 1897 to 1942. The museum has made drawings of the mill's construction and taken photographs of its many parts. The museum wants to construct a building based on the plans and photographs and using the timbers removed from the old mill. An operational flour mill of this nature could become an integral part of a demonstration farm which the museum committee has planned.
On April 3, 1965, when he was informed that the new highway construction had completely destroyed the last remaining parts of the mill he loved so well, Marlow Jones died in his sleep. So now the old mill and the last of its owners belong to a colorful age of history that is gone forever.
There are still many people, in Summit County and the surrounding area, who recall with nostalgia their trips to the old mill in horse-drawn wagons, Model "T" Fords, and later more modern trucks and cars. And they talk of the days gone by and how times have changed. Now historic Echo Canyon — which has had tribes of Indians, fur trappers, the Donner-Reed party, pioneers, the Pony Express, stagecoaches, and even buffalo (skeletons of these were found in the Echo Creek bed) travel the narrow canyon — will have another drastic change. The new superhighway will cut through and fill the small canyon, and cars will speed over the place where the old mill stood. Travelers will be oblivious of the mill — its history and the people who loved it and worked there. But still standing as reminders to those who remember the mill are Steamboat Rock and the tall-spiral Sentinel Rock located across the canyon from where the mill stood.
For full citations and images please view this article on a desktop.
