Industry
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About 1843, six years before Minnesota became a territory, Lemuel Bolles erected on this creek the first commercial flour mill in the Minnesota country. Bolles salvaged wood from the shore of Lake St. Croix and carried it on his back to the mill site a mile and a half upstream. Lacking nails, he used wooden pegs in the construction of a small mill. First built for grinding corn and wheat, the mill was later remodeled and was in operation as late as 1875 when Bolles died. The stream on which the mill was built became known as Bolles Creek.
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Afton, Minnesota · United States
