By 1845, Osceola's first sawmill stood two stories high on Osceola Creek near the shores of the St. Croix River and could cut 10,000 board feet every 24 hours; about 35 million board feet were cut during its existence. In the fall of 1853, the first wheat raised in Polk County was ground in the Kent Brothers' new gristmill. Built above Cascade Falls, that mill stood four stories tall and was powered by an overshot wheel driven by water. It was the oldest mill still operating in Polk County when fire destroyed it on the morning of July 5, 1880, and remnants of it remain today.