Wapsipinicon Mill
How might people have used natural resources to produce goods in the past?
Today, your family probably buys bread at the market, but once upon a time you had to make the ingredients and then bake your own bread at home.
Transcript
[Abby Brown] Can you guess what happened in this great big building in this little Iowa town a long time ago? I'll give you a hint. This is where they made a very important ingredient in bread.
This is Wapsipinicon Mill in Independence, Iowa. It's six stories high!
Before you could even buy a loaf of bread in a grocery store, people would bring their wheat here to be ground into flour. That flower would make bread. But that's not all, you could also grind your buckwheat, or your corn.
Inside the mill you can see antique equipment that was used here. There are pictures and displays to help visitors experience what it was like when the mill was in motion.
As time went by and the wheat crop was less common in Iowa, the Wapsipinicon Mill changed from grinding wheat into flour for people to bake with to grinding other grains into feed for livestock to eat.
The Wapsipinicon Mill is hard to miss in this community, not only because of its size, but also because of the history it keeps alive.
Every county in Iowa has a hard-working tale to tell. Thanks for exploring Buchanan County with me.