Archibald Gardner’s name comes up very often in my exploring and documenting, here’s a list of what I’ve come across so far.

Mills he built:

Other things he built:

References to him:

His posterity:

The following is an excerpt from the National Historic Register’s nomination form for the Gardner Mill:

Archibald Gardner, born in Scotland in 1814, emigrated to Canada with his family as a boy. At age 17 he undertook to build his first mill. He completed a second mill in Canada before becoming a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), for which he was persecuted by friends and neighbors. Taking his tools with him, Gardner and his family went to join the Mormon community in their journey west. The pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in October of 1847 and settled near streams to plant, irrigate, and power the mills essential to community life. Charles Crismon was immediately asked by the church High Council, which allocated and regulated economic rights, to build a gristmill on City Creek. Machinery had been brought with the first company of pioneers, and the mill began to operate as soon as November.

Gardner was involved in building a saw mill at Warm Springs which turned out the first saw-cut board in Utah. But the mill, powered by warm water, was unsuccessful and Gardner moved it to Mill Creek. There, he also built the third flour mill in Utah, two miles below one built by John Neff. Then in 1849-50 Gardner moved to an area almost uninhabited in West Jordan, at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley, to establish a sawmill. At a cost of $5000 he built a two-and-a-half mile long mill race from the Jordan River to power it. Adjacent to the sawmill he erected in 1853 a flour mill also powered by water. Early settlement centered around the West Jordan Mill. Other industries and businesses sprang up including a woolen mill, tannery, and blacksmith shop. The growing population increased demand and led to the decision by Gardner in 1877 to replace the old mill with “a better and more modern one.”

Gardner built over 30 mills in his lifetime, including flour mills, sawmills, shingle mills, planing mills, and woolen mills. Brigham Young, LDS church president, once stated that Archibald Gardner and Daniel H. Wells were “doing more to furnish employment than any other two men in the State of Deseret.” These two made roads and built bridges into the canyons surrounding Salt Lake Valley making building materials available to the early settlers. Gardner was also very much involved in building irrigation canals and dams throughout the area, and his capable dispatch of construction projects made him prosperous and a man of affairs. When in 1863 the first silver mining district in Utah was organized by General Connor, Gardner was himself a shareholder and the recorder. When the railroads came to Utah, Gardner contracted to supply ties. As befit a man of his stature in the Mormon community, he took a number of wives, the eleventh and last in 1870, and fathered forty-eight children. Gardner was also active politically. He served as a delegate to various conventions, including the Territorial Convention when a constitution was drafted to organize a provisional state government and apply for statehood. He also served two terms in the state legislature. Also an ecclesiastical leader, Gardner served as Bishop of the West Jordan Ward for 32 years, and was Patriarch of the Jordan Stake.

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