Lake of the Woods Milling Company facts for kids
The Lake of the Woods Milling Company was a big company that made flour. It had a huge flour mill in Keewatin, Ontario. This mill worked for 79 years, from 1887 to 1967. It might have been the biggest flour mill in the entire British Commonwealth at its busiest time!
Contents
History of the Flour Mill
The Lake of the Woods Milling Company started on May 21, 1887. It was created to use the new railway system and the large amounts of grain grown in western Canada.
How the Company Started
Important people from the board of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) helped create this company. These included George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, William Cornelius Van Horne, and James Ross. The main office was in Montreal. However, the flour mill itself was in Keewatin, Ontario.
This location was perfect for several reasons:
- It had easy access to transportation thanks to the CPR railway.
- It was close to the raw product, which was wheat.
- It had water-power from the Winnipeg River to run the mill.
Building the First Mill
The first mill was finished in 1888. John Mather, who was the vice-president, oversaw its construction. The company started with $300,000, which was a lot of money back then!
At its busiest, the mill could turn 62,000 bushels of wheat into 10,000 barrels of flour every single day. That's a huge amount of flour!
The Famous Five Roses Flour
The flour made by the company was sold under the name Five Roses. This brand became famous all over the world. In 1913, the Lake of the Woods company released the first edition of the Five Roses Cook Book. This cookbook is still being printed and used today!
End of an Era
In 1954, most of the company's important parts were bought by another flour company called Ogilvie Flour Mills Company. The mill in Keewatin finally closed its doors in 1967.
