Commerce Roller Mill
Date Visited: August 24, 2019
Stop: #47
We did not have to travel far to reach our next destination as we continued our Michigan Wines and Signs tour through Commerce Township. Having pulled out of the parking lot at Commerce United Methodist Church, we headed south on North Commerce Road until we reached West Commerce Road. We turned left and headed east for about 0.3 miles, and on the north side of the road was the Mill Race Park, the location of our next historical marker. Mill Race Park is a State Registered Historical Site, formerly occupied by the Commerce Roller Mill, the topic of the historical marker. We pulled into the gravel parking lot and found the historical marker at the far west end of the park, just a few feet off the parking lot. We had to battle the bright, setting sun in order to get a nice picture of the sign, but once that was accomplished, it was time to explore.
Today, this area is used
primarily as a passive open space area and interpretive site, with a picnic
table and an internal trail network with two bridges crossing the Huron River. We started down the main path and headed
towards the first bridge spanning the river.
As we walked on the path, we could see large stone structures to our
left and to our right. Of course,
curiosity got the best of me so I headed off towards the structure off to our
right. I followed a path that took me
along the river for a short distance, climbing over twisted tree roots and
stones, and through a very muddy low spot until I reached the structure. This was the original foundation for the
Commerce Roller mill. The area is very
overgrown with vegetation, and the foundation walls have become victims of
graffiti. You can see the dried-up
man-made ditch that served as the water source for the mill and there are other
stone and concrete structures that extend out into the Huron River itself. Having satisfied my curiosity and taken my
fair share of pictures, I headed back towards the bridge to check out the structures
that were to the left of the main path.
These structures seem to be
made of concrete, but I could not figure out what purpose they served. They are too far removed from the mill
foundation to have been a part of that structure, so I can only assume they were
part of another building. Even
researching the area after I got home that evening failed to unveil the
identity of these structures. In any
event, I love a good mystery so maybe someone who knows what they are will read
this and clue me in.
Kathy busied herself taking
lots of pictures since the area was very beautiful and offered many scenic
images. She took pictures of me on the
bridge, and then I reciprocated by taking pictures of her on the bridge, and
then of course, we had to take the requisite selfies of the both of us on the
bridge. We did not venture down the path
beyond the bridge, so that might be an adventure for another day. Little did we know at the time that this area
had quite an extensive history, which of course, centered around the mill
itself.
My research found two very
informative sources that provided a good history of this area. Between that, and what was written on the
historical marker, it was a rather fascinating story. The mill was built in 1837, three years after
the formation of Commerce Township, on property that was part of the original
platted village in 1825. Joseph and Asa
Farr, along with Amasa Andrews, were the builders of the grist mill, and it
served the community for over 90 years. There
are three basic types of mills, and the Commerce Roller Mill was known as an
“undershot” type – the water wheel carried the water from the Huron River
beneath the mill. The other types are
the overshot (the water is carried to the top of the water wheel) and the breastshot
(the water hit the wheel at the level of the wheel’s axis).
Many owners took possession of
the mill over the course of those 90 years including Seymour, Crossman, and
Hoover. In the 1890s, Milton Parshall
purchased the mill – he being the patriarch of one of the most famous milling families
in Michigan. In 1918, the mill was
operated by Isaac Lutz and his son, George.
The Lutz’s continued operation
of the mill into the mid 1920’s, but new technologies and mechanized mass
production processes began to cut into the mill’s ability to compete, thus
rendering it obsolete. The mill was
providing whole wheat and white flour, and was also shucking corn, and it had a
customer base that extended as far as Orchard Lake and Pontiac. But it became more difficult to compete with
more modern and mechanized mills, so the Lutz’s (with Isaac’s health failing,
and with George wanting to explore new career opportunities) closed the mill in
1927.
For 12 years the mill lay in a
state of ruin and disrepair until it fell victim to fire in the early morning
of September 6, 1939. At the time, the
three-story structure was owned by the Leroy Pelletier estate and valued at
between $10,000.00 and $15,000.00. The building, which had replaced the
original grist mill in 1843, was a total loss.
Throughout the 1940s and ‘50s
the site of the mill and its ruins reverted to a more natural state. Overgrown with shrubbery and trees, the area
developed into an unofficial nature trail that local residents enjoyed. In 1980, Commerce Township purchased the mill
property from the Boron Oil Company and is currently preserving it as a passive
recreational park for Township residents. In 1983, the Michigan Youth Corps built
two log bridges across the river to provide better access through the park. On April 5, 1984, the Michigan Historical
Commission designated the site as historic and, on September 22, 1984, with the
erection of a two-posted historic marker, the State of Michigan formally
dedicated the ruins of the Commerce Roller Mill.
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