Historic Committee Meeting Today: 5:30 pm at Cottonwood Heights City Hall

        Attend the meeting today at 5:30 pm or submit your comments before the meeting time to aeatchel@ch.utah.gov          

     My Letter to Cottonwood Heights Historic Committee

     I respectfully request that the Cottonwood Heights Historic Committee continue working to preserve the historic status of The Deseret News Cottonwood Paper Mill (aka The Old Mill) designed by Pioneer Builder Henry Grow, which was first designated as a historic site by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in 1966, and in 1971, was further granted national historic status by the National Register of Historic Places.  

    The Old Mill is a treasured monument to our pioneer heritage, and has become a beloved symbol of our Cottonwood Heights Community!  It is so very sad to realize that  our Old Mill, which stands before us today as a dilapidated building with broken windows and roof caving in, could have become a beautiful community center, if only the developers who worked so hard, had been given the ‘go-ahead’ five years ago.

    I don’t know all of the details, but The Old Mill’s fate hung in the balance in 2019.  I have heard that an entire team of some of the most respected individuals in our community, many of whom you know, spent over 3 years working with the Walker Family on a plan to develop The Old Mill into a community center for Cottonwood Heights.  Former Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore and Former Mayor Mike Peterson worked closely with the team, and plans for the development were submitted before the Cottonwood Heights City Council.  

   Beecher Walker Architects and Gardner Development Company, to name a few, worked extensively on the project. I would be happy to get you in touch with some of these individuals, and hopefully schedule them on the agenda of one of the future Cottonwood Heights Historic Committee’s meetings.

   The fact is that The Old Mill has great potential and there are plans in place, complete with architectural renderings, that could be utilized, if the Walker Family Trust can accept that The Old Mill is a vital piece of Utah history, and that we as a community will not allow it to be destroyed.

    The Old Mill is currently on the National Registry of Historic Properties, and with the help of the Cottonwood Heights Historic Committee, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers,  Sons of the Utah Pioneers, and The Henry Grow Family Association, it will not now, nor ever will be eliminated from its status as a nationally archived historic building, regardless of whether it remains a mere shell of a historic ruin like the famous ruins of Rome, or is allowed by the Walker Family to become a beautifully restored historic building and community center for the Cottonwood Heights community.

Sidelight:

      One more chapter in the historical value of The Old Mill was brought to my attention by a neighbor who recently told me the story of the spring and 5 older homes in the canyon:

      Early pioneers, living far from civilization, were tasked with the challenge of finding strong building materials in the Salt Lake Valley. Granite boulders were found in Little Cottonwood Canyon and stone cutters carved the boulders into granite blocks to provide strong building blocks for the exterior of the temple in downtown Salt Lake.

     The giant stones weighed between 2000 & 6000 pounds each, and were brought in ox-drawn wagons over, often time, almost impassable roads full of hills, gullies, streams, and sandpits.  The journey took 3 to 5 days for a team of four oxen to transport a single block.  The cool, refreshing spring discovered at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Creek Canyon was a welcome respite after the difficult journey through the mountains, and soon 5 small cabins were built to give both man and beast a rest before continuing the long 15 mile journey to downtown Salt Lake.  

       The granite stones that were rejected from building the temple were then put to good use by building the The Cottonwood Paper Mill for the Deseret Newspaper, to eliminate the expensive cost of shipping paper, which had to be brought overland by stage coach or horse-drawn wagons, prior to the building of the railroad.

      So we see that the granite stones that cover the exterior of The Old Mill are as much a part of the history of The Old Mill, as the Old Mill itself.  So regardless of the outcome of The Old Mill, even its stone ruins are a significant testament to our exemplary pioneer heritage.