Echo Flour Mill

Echo Flour Mill

Early settlers recognized the good ranching and farming prospects of northern Summit County. An abundance of water from the Weber and Echo Creek allowed for crops of hardy grains. So, on this site in the spring of 1871, William Turpin began construction of a mill to grind wheat. Using red pine lumber brought from a sawmill five miles up Echo Canyon, it took two years and cost $8,000 to complete the three-story structure. Two large round burrs, made of stone hard enough to grind wheat without leaving grit in the flour, were imported from France. One of these burrs now resides in front of the Henefer Daughters of Utah Pioneers cabin. The flour mill converted to the roller process in 1893, though use of the burrs continued for chopping cattle feed until 1906. Alfred R. Jones and his brother John S. Jones purchased the mill in 1899. Alfred’s son, Marlow, purchased John’s share of the operations in 1914, and the mill continued in regular use until 1942. Farmers brought their grist from as far away as Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and Woodruff, Utah. Every fall, the mill owners purchased one or two railroad cars of wheat, which had been shipped from the Wellsville Co-op in Cache Valley. The wheat was ground into flour and sold from the mill to stores in Echo and Coalville and to miners in Grass Creek. The mill building was a local landmark until 1964, when it was demolished to make way for a new interstate highway. The Echo Flour Mill site is dedicated to the memory of Marguerite Jones Wright, who lived at the mill until she was eighteen years old.