We went on a little adventure this past weekend and I’ll post about that next, but I decided against a hiking adventure this week. Instead we went with Holly, Ivy, and Daphne to tour Thompson’s Flour Mill in Shedd, Oregon, yesterday. Levi stayed in the truck with a bum foot (I took him to the doctor later that evening and discovered that he has three fractured metatarsals. Fun stuff.)
Thompson’s Flour Mill is a wonderful place to visit. Easy to find. Easy parking. Gorgeous scenery. Great hours. Multiple guided tours a day. Not busy. And FREE.
Our tour guide (we had her all to ourselves) was a retired school teacher, and she was excellent with the kids. She asked their names once and then proceeded to call them by name correctly for the full tour (over an hour and a half). The tour includes hands-on activities for the kids. They each had a chance to make the gears move.
And a chance to clean, grind, and sift flour by hand.
The mill is under some construction at the moment, but our tour guide started up the mill under electricity so the kids could hear what it sounded like and see the grain elevators and cleaners moving.
The mill is the oldest water-powered mill in Oregon. The first mill was built in the early 1800s and then was destroyed by fire. Parts of this mill were rebuilt in the 1860s while Abe Lincoln was president. The silos were built in the early 1900s. It was a money making mill until 2002 (first milling flour, then animal feed, and lastly generating electricity).