How Did Thorp Mill Benefit The Local Community

The Thorp Mill was one of many locally supported gristmills that were built in the last years of the nineteenth century. Spanning along the waterways of Washington State, these mills ran off of the power supplied by diverted water currents. In Kittitas County alone, there were competing mills especially closer to the larger populations in nearby Ellensburg. This did not prevent the success of the local mill production of Thorp. Not only did the Thorp Mill outlast many of the other gristmills of the region, it became a center of the local community, producing not only flour, but electricity and a place for the local population to connect.
The gristmill was built in the 1880s following the introduction of wheat as an agricultural product of

For the members of the local community, it was a welcome operation, even if they personally were not involved in the grain trade. One of the surprising ways that the Thorp Mill benefited the local community was in the power that was generated utilizing the canal waterways. In the early years of the twentieth century, generators were installed in the mill, making J.L. Mills owner of both the mill and the local light plant. Community discussions reportedly took place between J.L. Mills and the local Thorp residents in an attempt to come up with an electrical schedule that would benefit both the mill and the town. Discussed by Sherfey, the eventual agreement was that J.L. Mills would “spend Monday and Tuesday mornings operating the electricity plant. These were the weekly wash and ironing days, and probably baking days, too, for the housewives in town.” For those living in this rural area outside of the county's larger cities, this addition of electrical power would have been an enormously positive change, even if they themselves were not involved in the other agricultural and milling process of the Thorp Mill. Like other areas in Eastern Washington, in Thorp “water power was cheap and inexpensive power, and a gristmill was not beyond the financial means of most early towns, with everyone banding together to help in getting the mill