The "Old Mill" on Cottonwood Creek Traditional Cache
The "Old Mill" on Cottonwood Creek
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When I was a kid, the "Old Mill" held a certain fascination as a place to explore when no one was around. It was rumored to be haunted! For several years, during the month of October, it was used for a charity fund raiser, billed as "The Haunted Old Mill". It wasn't until I became an adult that I understood some of the history of the "Old Mill" on Cottowood Creek. The Cottonwood Paper Mill is an abandoned stone structure located at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Salt Lake Valley. It was built in 1883 by the Deseret News under the direction of Henry Grow. Workers used paper making equipment brought in from the old Sugar House Paper Mill to grind logs from nearby canyons into pulp. Rags gathered from old clothes were also used to produce the pulp, which was then placed into molds and dried. During its operation, the mill could yield up to 5 tons of paper per day. The mill provided jobs and paper for nearly ten years. But the completion of the railroad had made paper significantly cheaper to obtain. In 1892, the Cottonwood Paper Mill was sold to Granite Paper Mills Company. On April 1, 1893, a fire broke out inside. Between its large stockpile of paper and the fact that many who heard the alarm thought it to be an April Fool's joke, the mill was destroyed, leaving only a stone skeleton. The structure was partially rebuilt in 1927 for use as an open-air dance hall, known as the Old Mill Club, and remained so until the 1940s. It was also used in the 1970s and 1980s as a haunted house and a craft boutique. It was declared a historic site by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in 1966. A plaque was erected which remained at the site until sometime in 2009. The inscription on the plaque read as follows: Daughters of Utah Pioneers No 326, Erected 1966 COTTONWOOD PAPER MILL In 1880 the Deseret News Corporation purchased a 28-acre millsite including water rights. With Henry Grow, architect and builder, the $150,000 structure, made of granite from nearby quarries, with mortar of clay of stone grindings, took three years to erect. The 1860 paper machine from sugarhouse mill and some new machinery was installed; A 1500-ft rage brought water through the penstock to encased turbines. The plant could yield 5 tons of paper a day. Chas J. Lamber, Manager, sold to Granite Paper Mills Co. 1892; Destroyed by fire 1893; Restored 1927 as a recreational center. Central Company Information from Wikipedia. *****Congratulations to HikingSeal for being FTF!*****
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(Decrypt)
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