An 1881 newspaper noted that, due to the many gold miners in the region, "Price's mill is running day and night, and cannot keep up with the demand". New, state-of-the-art equipment was then installed, to make the fine white flour that was coming into public favour at the time. When business declined in the 1890s, the log store became a home. Original 1895 wallpaper is still on the walls. Sometime in the early 1900s the upper floor of the mill was cleared of machinery and turned into a chicken house. Everything was tossed into the lower floor, creating a jumbled heap of parts and pieces. Over the years, the upper floor was always put to some use, and the machinery in the lower floor was isolated and protected. When the bottom logs decayed, the Eureka grain cleaner helped to hold up the building. In 1979, when the site was purchased by the British Columbia Heritage Trust, this little mill was recognized as the last surviving example of the many pioneer settlement mills in B.C. which produced flour during the 1800s. It now appears to be the only remaining mill from that period west of Ontario still in its original location with both the building and machinery intact. Although the equipment was still in the building, it had been dismantled and left in a heap. This presented something like a gigantic jig-saw puzzle, requiring careful analysis before an accurate restoration could be accomplished. The mill proved to be extremely difficult to analyze. Flour making follows a predictable sequence of cleaning, grinding and sifting, but the Keremeos mill was fitted with some unique machinery and had been remodelled several times in its short working life. Also, it was built at a time of transition in the milling trade, something which existed for a brief few years as the milling industry developed an entirely new way of producing flour. A simple system was first installed, but in the early 1880s, "state of the art" industrial grinders were placed in this pioneer setting. Here they were surrounded by the hand hewn building techniques known a century earlier in the east. The logs and boards, cut in 1876, clearly show the hand-hewn marks of broad axe, adze and pit saw. The fact of extensive renovations in 1881, just three years after its first operation, presented a formidable challenge in attempts to restore the existing pieces of machinery to their "original" operating positions. Nail holes and wear marks indicate that some pieces were used and reused in more than one location as additional modifications were made during the 20 year operating period. Definition of what was "original" and what was "presentable" based on the surviving equipment led to the decision to restore the mill to its arrangement after the 1881 renovation. Most of the machinery was from this period, and in terms of the history of milling in North America, the Keremeos mill was thus able to present something no other restored mill had to offer, an example of an early innovative "New Process" way of making flour. Restoration of the basic power system and machinery in 1989 allowed flour to be ground once again in the old mill. |
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by Sheba