Pioneer Flour Mill Site

John Neff could have gotten rich off hunger and refused. His mill, built here in the spring of 1848 on stones he'd carried west — bought from Brigham Young at Winter Quarters — was the first in the valley to grind refined flour. When California-bound emigrants offered a dollar a pound for it, Neff turned them down, selling instead to the valley's needy at six cents a pound and often giving it away to those who couldn't pay at all. Brigham Young praised him for doing what no other man would. A millstone fragment marks the spot.

What the plaque says

445 feet west of this monument is the site of the pioneer flour mill erected in the spring of 1848 by John Neff, 1847 Pioneer, the burrs were bought by him at winter quarters from Brigham Young at whose request they were brought to Utah. The granite block in the monument is part of one of the mill stones. The mill began operations in March, 1848, and was the first in the valley to produce refined flour. The builder, noted for his humanitarianism, refused $1.00 a pound for flour, from emigrants to California, selling it to the needy poor at 6 cents a pound and frequently giving it to those unable to buy.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 3.8 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 4.3 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood
• Liberty Park — 4.6 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 4.6 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City

More markers nearby

• Legacy of the Black Pioneer — 0.6 mi
• Uriah Nephi Smart Tannery — 0.7 mi
• 1997 Sesquicentennial Trekkers — 1.1 mi
• Horace A. Sorensen — 1.1 mi