Edina Mill
Coordinates: 44°54′45″N 93°20′32″W / 44.91250°N 93.34222°W
The Edina Mill was one of the first of six gristmills to be built on the Minnehaha Creek in Hennepin County, Minnesota between 1855 and 1876. Located in present-day Edina, the mill site was discovered during an expedition from Fort Snelling to Lake Minnetonka in 1822. Although the original mill structure was demolished in 1932, its former site is preserved with foundation markers and informational exhibits.
In the mid-1850s, small gristmills began to spring up along several creeks that ran through the land where much of the area's grain was grown. This was a direct result of the fact that prior to these mills, farmers had to haul their grain in horse-drawn wagons over long distances to the mills at Saint Anthony Falls along the Mississippi River.
In 1856, Jacob Elliot, Captain Richard Strout, Levi M. Stewart, and Joseph Cushman purchased land and constructed a mill on the Minnehaha Creek in present-day Edina. The mill and the tiny settlement that sprang up around it were named Waterville Mills. Pioneer farmers brought their wheat, rye, oats, barley and corn from as far away as Excelsior and St. Anthony. In 1859, the mill was resold to William Rheem and Jonathan T. Grimes who renamed it the Red Mill. They kept the mill running constantly during the Civil War making flour requisitioned by the government for the Union Army. In 1867, the mill was again resold to Daniel H. Buckwalter who again changed the name of the mill to the Buckwalter Mill.
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