Alexander-Wilson Mill

This exhibit along the Towpath Trail includes audio messages describing the mill’s history.

NPS / Arrye Rosser

Quick Facts

Location:

Park at the unmarked Fitzwater Parking Lot, Fitzwater Road west of Canal Road, Independence, Ohio 44125 and walk south on the Towpath Trail.

Significance:

Built about 1853, this mill is one of the few businesses along the Ohio & Erie Canal that has operated continuously. Remnants of the original millworks are still visible, though no longer functional.

Designation:

Ohio & Erie Canal District, Ohio and Erie Canalway National Heritage Area, Ohio to Erie Trail, Industrial Heartland Trail Network, National Register of Historic Places

Amenities

3 listed

Audio Description, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible

Falling water provides power. If you can capture that energy with a waterwheel, you can use it to grind grain and make a living. About 1853, the Alexander family built a grist mill here. In time, they replaced the waterwheel with more efficient turbines. Around 1900, the Alexanders sold the business to the Wilsons. After 70 years of using waterpower, the Wilsons switched to electric motors. Today, the family sells pre-bagged feed and fertilizer.

Crank the handle on the audio player to hear “Skip” Wilson talk about the mill’s history. Visit our website to learn more about this and other local businesses in the Cuyahoga Valley.

Tags: cuyahoga valley national park, ohio, midwest, national register of historic places, nr, historic district, cultural landscapes, canal, towpath trail, industrial heartland trail network, cultural resources, engineering, water control, mill, oral history, ohio and erie canal, ohio and erie canalway, ohio to erie trail

• The “Legger” Elevator

  
  

  Thomas G. “Skip” Wilson describes the operation at Wilson Feed Mill.
  Audio Transcript

  The mill . . . is a fairly rectangular boxy building about four or five stories tall . . . It has on the outside of it right now a modern . . . what we call a grain “legger” elevator. It looks like two metal rectangles that go up to the top . . . When we . . . offload grain, a truck comes up, we put an auger to it, which is like a screw mechanism, and it puts it into what is now a conveyor. And these cups take it up and dump it in through the mill. It’s perched right on the edge of the Ohio & Erie Canal . . . because it was built to use the waterpower . . . And the water . . . was diverted underneath the mill and would turn the turbines . . . And then through belts and shafts . . . did everything from grinding to mixing to moving the elevators.