'A long journey': Historic flour mill in Yorkton opens to public

Yorkton, Sask. -

Yorkton’s historic brick flour mill opened to the public on Tuesday.

“It’s really nice to have people coming through to see this really important part of Yorkton’s history,” tour guide Megan Kirby said.

The landmark was built in 1900 and is the only brick flour mill in Western Canada, according to Brick Mill Heritage Society Member Larry Pearen.

"We're excited to have the doors open finally, it's been a long journey, (and) eight years of fundraising,” he said.

So far, $300,000 was invested into the almost 125 year old building. The structure of the mill has withstood the test of time and Pearen said it has three and four layers of brick for each wall.

Within those walls is all of the original equipment.

"We're very lucky,” Pearen said. “It's not operational and it never will be, but at least it's there, so, you can see all of the mechanics in the building.”

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The building has three floors and a basement. The basement is closed to the public due to fire code.

Historically, the wheat would be processed six times before it was turned to flour. A series of pipes would transport the product from the basement to the top floor, where it would be sifted through.

The pipes are located on the second floor. Before the days of metal clamps, pipes were held together by gum made from wheat.

"Every morning, you'd come in, and half of these pipes would have fallen down, so you'd have to chew wheat to get gum and stick it back together again," said Pearen.

On the first floor, there are six mills to break down wheat and machines to bag the final product.

"This mill and wheat exchange program saved their family’s lives, because they could bring in wheat and take home an equivalent amount of flour from it," Kirby said.

“I’m just really excited to share local history.”

Tours are free of charge and can be booked online.