Shawnee Milling Company

The mill began as the Shawnee Roller Mills and reached Shawnee on skids pulled by mules after the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad built through the town. Ford renamed it Shawnee Milling Company, bought the Okeene Milling Company in Blaine County in 1932 and turned the presidency over to his son Leslie in 1946. By 1978 the mill produced more than 300 tons of flour a day. In 2000 the company owned seven grain elevators, from Arnett to Okarche, and at the turn of the century Ford's grandson William Leslie Ford was president.

What the plaque says

Shawnee Milling Company Original flour mill built in 1891 S. of N. Canadian River, S. of Shawnee. Moved to present site in 1895. April 20, 1906, mill purchased by J. Lloyd Ford. He was leader in Okla. flour milling for over 50 yrs. and played important part in building local community and Okla. Baptist Univ. Mill burned 1934, rebuilt 1935. Oklahoma Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center — 2.0 mi
  The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's national museum and archive in Shawnee, telling a Great Lakes people's road through Kansas to Indian Territory in the Nation's own words and objects.
• Seminole Nation Museum — 27 mi
  A community museum in Wewoka, capital of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, telling the Seminole story from Florida to Indian Territory and the town that John Horse's people founded in 1849.
• Boley Historic District — 27 mi
  The downtown of the largest of Oklahoma's All-Black towns, praised by Booker T. Washington, squeezed by Jim Crow and white land oaths, bankrupt in 1939 and still living today.

More markers nearby

• Home on the Range — 1.4 mi
• Shawnee Mission — 2.2 mi
• Birthsite of Jim Thorpe — 12 mi
• Mekasukey Academy — 15 mi