Morningstar Mill facts for kids
Morningstar Mill is a cool historical place in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It covers about 2.98-acre (1.21 ha) of land. Here, you can find the old Morningstar Mill, a sawmill (for cutting wood), and the family's home. There's also a barn where people used to do blacksmith work. All of this is located near the beautiful Decew Falls gorge, which is part of the Niagara Escarpment.
A group of volunteers called the Friends of Morningstar Mill helps run the site. The City of St. Catharines owns it. The main building, a gristmill (which grinds grain into flour), was fixed up and started working again in 1992.
The Mill's Story
The history of Morningstar Mill is quite interesting! After the War of 1812, a man named John DeCou built the first mill here. It was a stone mill that used a large waterwheel to grind grain. This first mill was built right at Decew Falls.
New Mill, New Power
Later, in 1872, a new mill was built on the same spot. This one was called Mountain Mills. It was built by Robert Chappel. The biggest change was how it got its power. Instead of a waterwheel, this new mill used a special machine called a turbine. A turbine uses the force of flowing water to spin, which then powers the mill.
The mill had some water supply issues for a while. But eventually, the water flow was fixed. Then, a man named Wilson Morningstar bought the mill.
The Morningstar Family
Wilson Morningstar was a busy man! He would get a small part of the flour or animal feed that the mill produced as his payment. He also ran a blacksmith shop and a carpentry shop on the property.
In 1895, a fire destroyed most of the mill buildings. Only the strong stone structure survived. But Wilson Morningstar didn't give up! He rebuilt everything. Wilson Morningstar passed away in 1933, but his family kept the mill running for many years after that. In 1983, the City of St. Catharines bought the property to protect its history.
Visiting the Mill
Morningstar Mill officially reopened as a place for visitors in 1962. In 1992, the Friends of Morningstar Mill group was started by people who wanted to help. Their main goal was to fix the old gristmill so it could grind grain again. They succeeded, and the gristmill was fully working by 1992!
In 2020, the mill had to close to visitors for a while because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. But it remains an important historical site.
