Early Pioneer Mills

Before the water was piped and dammed, this canyon stream turned wheels. The Sons of Utah Pioneers count twenty-two mills that once stood along the creek they call Mill Stream — the Gardner, Neff, and Osguthorpe mills among them, built and run by Scottish, Welsh, and English converts who had the millwright's trade. The grinding stones worked the settlers' wheat as the isolated valley fed itself. Both the mills and the millers are gone now; this plaque, with its watermill verse, stands for the vanished machinery of a self-supplied frontier.

What the plaque says

Sons of Utah Pioneers Early Pioneer Mills There were twenty-two mills along Millstream giving this mountain water a name and life surviving function. Gardner, Neff, and Osguthorpe were names of pioneer-constructed mills along Millstream. The Scottish, Welsh, and English Mormon converts provided needed supplies generated by the mill race water power. The grinding wheels of millstones worked the wheat as the mountains and isolated valleys sustained the people. The water turned wheel was depicted in Dr. Richard Gunn’s artistic conception of the mill. The East Mill Creek Mills Chapter appreciates and honors the mill and our ancestors. Both have passed away and are gone. The Lesson of the Watermill Listen to the water-mill Through the live-long day, How the clicking of its wheel Wear the hours away. Languidly the autumn wind Stirs the forest leaves, From the field the reapers sing Binding up the sheaves. And a proverb haunts my mind And a spell is cast---- “The mill cannot grind With the water that is past.” From the power of the will came the strength of the mill To give life to those who settle from our ancestral foreordained metal East Mill Creek Mills Chapter, Sons of Utah Pioneers Dedicated December 28, 1984

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 3.1 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Emigration Canyon — 3.7 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 3.9 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 4.2 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views

More markers nearby

• Handcart Companies — steps away
• Charles Stillman Bridge — steps away
• B and K Tannery — steps away
• Kanyon Creek Mill — steps away