Archives West Finding Aid

In 1871 Ben Lamb built the Echo Flour Mill one mile east of Echo, Utah for William Turpin at the cost of $8000. Used by local farmers, the mill produced flour, bran, shorts, and germade. Owners of the mill used wheat purchased from the Wellsville, Utah Co-op to produce flour for merchants in Echo, Coalville, Grass Creek Mines, and Devil's Slide. Due to its location near the Union Pacific Railroad, farmers and merchants as far away as Fort Bridger, Millburne, and Burnt Fork, Wyoming traveled to use the mill.

For the first twenty years of the mill's existence two 500 pound stone burrs imported from France were used to ground the wheat. In 1893 steel rollers and silk reels replaced the stone burrs. Remodeled again in 1906, sifters replaced the silk reels. Wooden spouts were added to the sifters in another remodeling during 1920, and remained in use until the mill closed in 1942.

A dam across Echo Creek provided the power source for the mill by means of a steel 12-inch water wheel located below the mill's ground level. Originally an overshot water wheel generated the water, but the lower wheel provided more power. The mill's lower level housed grain bins and roller machinery; the second level contained the sifters, choppers, and rollers; and the third floor held the elevator heads and bran bins. With this machinery the mill could produce up to nineteen barrels of flour a day. Each 60 pounds of wheat produced approximately 30-32 pounds of flour, 14 pounds of bran and shorts, and 5 pounds of germade.

Several owners managed the mill. William Turpin directed operations until 1897, Heber Bennion supervised it until 1899. Marlow and John Jones purchased the mill in 1899 and ran it until 1914. Marlow Jones then operated the mill until it closed after buying it from his brother John. Marlow donated the building to the Man & His Bread Museum located in Logan, Utah in 1964 when a proposed highway construction threatened the mill. While the original intent of the donation was to salvage all machinery, elevators, windows, and doors the Man & His Bread Museum (now the American West Heritage Center) received only the machines that housed the roller mills.

Source: Wright, Margaret J. "Echos from the Past: The Story of the Echo Flour Mill." Utah Historical Quarterly 34 (1966): 161-168.