The Walker family, emigrants from Minnesota, became prominent millers in the region after Hiram Walker established a mill in Valley City in 1879. His son Myron later took over, built a new mill at Oakville, and bought another at Daily, while Myron's brother T.J. Walker constructed a mill at Fort Ransom. In 1906, Myron Walker built a dam here intending to move his Oakville Mill from a half mile upstream closer to Kathryn and the railroad, but the dam was sabotaged during a dispute over water rights and the mill was never moved. The current dam was built by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s, and remains of Walker's dam are still visible. Myron Walker sold his flour as "Walker's Best," hauling it by draft horse teams to railheads at Fingal and Valley City, with much of it going east to New York City and the rest serving towns within a 40-mile radius, including Eckelson, Enderlin, Tower City, and Griswold. Flour mills historically used flowing water to power waterwheels, shafts, and gears that turned paired millstones, whose runner stone and bed stone ground wheat, rye, and other hard-hulled grains into flour for baking. Small towns often grew up near flour mills and rose or declined with their success, and nearby Daily and Oakville nearly vanished after the railroad was located farther south. Grinding grain for area farmers was a major part of Myron Walker's trade, drawing families from miles around to have harvests milled and to spend time fishing, swimming in the Sheyenne River, picking berries, shopping, and socializing. Mill operations commonly used water wheels, shafts, gears, belts, and pulleys housed in multiple buildings, and millstones made from very hard rock, sometimes from Normandy, France, had to be re-dressed about once a month with specialized tools as their grooved surfaces wore down, though full-time stones could last 20 to 25 years.