Wapsipinicon Mill

[Abby Brown] Can you guess what happened in this great big building in this little Iowa town a long time ago?

(Abby points to a colonial style brick building.)

I'll give you a hint. This is where they made a very important ingredient in bread.

(Map marking Buchanan County in the northeastern part of the state.)

This is Wapsipinicon Mill in Independence, Iowa. It's six stories high!

Before you could even buy a loaf of bread in a grocery store, people would bring their wheat here to be ground into flour. That flower would make bread. But that's not all, you could also grind your buckwheat, or your corn.

(A miniature replica of two horses pulling a tall-sided wooden wagon filled with corn stopped on an opening in the ground. The wagon tilts back as if it was uploading the load of corn into the ground.)

Inside the mill you can see antique equipment that was used here. There are pictures and displays to help visitors experience what it was like when the mill was in motion.

(A large wooden box with a hand wheel attached to one side. A square shoot at the top and a larger wheel between the shoot and the hand wheel.)

(Horizontal Augers - Large square pole-like fence posts with flap-shaped protrusions running diagonally down the poles like Christmas lights on a tree.)

As time went by and the wheat crop was less common in Iowa, the Wapsipinicon Mill changed from grinding wheat into flour for people to bake with to grinding other grains into feed for livestock to eat.

The Wapsipinicon Mill is hard to miss in this community, not only because of its size, but also because of the history it keeps alive.

Every county in Iowa has a hard-working tale to tell. Thanks for exploring Buchanan County with me.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.