Caledonia Mill

Caledonia Mill

Caledonia Mill

The Caledonia Mill is a historic mill building located in Caledonia, Ontario, Canada. Built in 1846, it is a heritage property under the Ontario Heritage Act. It is the last timber-frame water powered mill along the Grand River in Ontario.

The Caledonia Mill is located on the banks of the Canadian Heritage Grand River, in Caledonia, Ontario Canada.

No-one has pinpointed an actual date when the Old Mill was built other than to say it was about 1846. From then to 1892, it would seem the flour milling industry in Caledonia was big business but not without competition across the river or financial difficulty. Caledonia founder Ranald McKinnon’s milling enterprises on the Northside by 1850 comprised a sawmill, flour mill, and woollen mill. This Northside area of mill was known to be within the Village of Oneida. James Little’s Southside mill was known to be within the Village of Sunnyside.

Doomed by fire and daunted by flood, McKinnon had his share of bad luck with mills. His sawmill, many times damaged by ice and shifted off its location by the 1861 flood, lasted until it burned in January 1942. The 1844 flour mill was rebuilt twice following fires in 1862 and 1876 and remained until Sept. 6, 1969 when fire struck again for the last time. The 1848 woollen mill burned and was rebuilt in 1863 but was left down after claimed arson took it in 1881, two years following McKinnon’s death. The Southside mill, left free from fire and flood, withstood and still remains over 150 years later.

Our concentration on the flour mills only is where the claimed big milling business of the 1860 and 70’s took place. Up to then the two flour mills can only be presumed to have either been rented or managed for Little and McKinnon. Daniel McQuarrie was in partnership with McKinnon in the Northside mill from 1865 to 1869. This partnership came to a close and McQuarrie and James Thorburn bought the Southside mill known as Balmoral Mills, renaming it Grand River Mills.

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