Mill Creek Mill Stone

Robert Campbell added a gristmill to his sawmill operation at Mill Creek by the early 1800s. It was used to grind wheat or other grains to make flour.

Unlike most of the Mill Creek artifacts, which remained here and are excavated by archaeologists, the granite millstones went on a journey. In 1860, twenty years after the mill was abandoned, they were obtained by James Myers for use in his mill in nearby Cheboygan. He transferred the stones to his Myers Creek Mill south of town in the middle 1860s. The mill ceased operation by 1890.

In 1968 one of the stones, now broken, was found at the Myers’ mill site. The discovery piqued the interest of local historian Ellis Olson and compelled him to search for the forgotten Mill Creek site. In 1972 he discovered Mill Creek with his wife Mary and Margaret Lentini.

But what happened to the second stone?

In the early 1890s the other stone was acquired by Walter Watson, a local farmer. It was taken by raft from Myers Creek down the Cheboygan River to the Watson farm south of Cheboygan. Watson intended shipping it to the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago. It never made it to the fair, but remained on the Watson farm for the next century. The millstones were reunited at Mill Creek in 1994.

Both stones are exhibited in the Millwright’s House at Historic Mill Creek. Both stones are exhibited in the Millwright’s House at Historic Mill Creek.
Millstone (runner) gift of Robert Hillmer (1988.8.1)
Millstone (bedstone) gift of Florence Bradstrom (1994.5.1)