Old Stone Mill, Delta, Ontario

The First Grind

On Saturday, October 9, 2010, the Old Stone Mill National Historic Site in Delta celebrated a milestone accomplishment; the first stone grinding of grain into flour in 100 years. The working mill stones were installed in the spring of 2010 (in time for the 200th anniversary celebrations of the mill in June - see the photos for that event). At that time, the retired miller from Upper Canada Village, Roland Thetraut, was invited to come to the mill and demonstrate how the millstones worked. We invited Roland back again for Thanksgiving, to actually use the millstones to grind grain into flour.

This momentous event has absolutely fulfilled the goal of The Delta Mill Society to have the mill "operational" by 2010. And we have the stone ground flour to prove it!

Congratulations to The Delta Mill Society, our many volunteers, and to our very hard working and dedicated staff; Curator Paul George and Assistant Curator Natalie Wood. Job well done!

Click on any photo to see a larger version

Paul George, Rob Otrum and Roland Tetrault (retired miller from Upper Canada Village) setting up the stones for the first grind.
Rob Otrum, Chris Wooding (grew the wheat), and Roland Tetrault.
The first grind. The grain is falling into the hopper and then down to the stones and being ground into flour. With Rob Otrum and Roland Tetrault.
Roland Tetrault clears the freshly ground flour from the stones. The round specs in the photo are from the flash reflecting off flour dust in the air.


Anna Greenhorn and Rob Otrum with "flour hands."
Natalie Wood gets ready at the bolter to fill the first bag of flour.
Natalie Wood fills the first bag of flour
Roland Tetrault and Paul George fill a bag with freshly ground flour.


Freshly ground flour - the first in 100 years at the Old Stone Mill.
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