World United States Nebraska Valentine

The Oregon Trail 2018

Neligh Mill Jun 5, 2018

Valentine, NE One of our stops today in the Great Park Pursuit program was Neligh Mill State Historical Park. It is the only mill in Nebraska with the original equipment still intact from the 1880’s. Neligh Mills was one of the largest flour mills in Nebraska with a peak production of 98,000 pounds of flour per day from 1900 to 1920. That means they filled an entire train boxcar with sacks of flour every day. They worked 6 days a week. Amazing. And Gold Medal flour was produced at the mill until May of 1940 when General Mills paid the mill $5,000 to become be the sole owner of the brand name. Apparently General Mills originally offered only $3,000 but the mill held firm and after months of negotiations, came out on top against a corporate giant. Hooray for the little guy!