Marker Name: The Knudsen Flour Mill
Marker Number: 488
Marker Text:
THE KNUDSEN FLOUR MILL This mill was established on this site in 1878, by Rasmus Christian Knudsen, a millwright and master joiner from Arlborg, Denmark. In 1864, he immigrated to Utah with his wife and two small children, walking across the plains, so that his family could ride. Immediately following his arrival in Utah, Brigham Young engaged him in building mills. First he built the Mork Jeff Flour Mill in Heber City, then sawmills in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and other mills in Utah, including windmills. This stone is believed to be the largest mill stone and first pearling stone west of the Mississippi River. Rasmus cut it from a piece of hand quartzite, hauled from Farmington Canyon by six yoke of oxen. The curved furrowing around the edges known as "sickle dressing" which, when revolving against its counterpart on the stone above, caused a scissoring action that removed the husks from the grains of barley. The Knudsen Mill operated for nearly 30 years and was awarded prize winning medallions for its high quality products. These included white and graham flour, cornmeal, pearled barley, cracked wheat, hominy, and steel-cut oatmeal, milled in a machine invented by Rasmus Knudsen. Both Knudsen's Grove, founded in 1912, and Knudsen's Corner, in 1919, owe their origins to the Knudsen Flour Mill.
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