The Concordia Mill is a former

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

on Cedar Creek located in Hamilton,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

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. The limestone mill was built in 1853 by Edward H. Janssen and his brother, Theodore, along with a Mr. Gaitsch with locally quarried limestone. In 1881, the mill's dam washed out during heavy spring flooding and was rebuilt sometime later. The mill operated until World War II when it was converted into a distillery that operated for several years. On April 26, 1974, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

, and the surrounding area, known as the Hamilton Historic District was added to the NRHP two years later. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, the City of Cedarburg's sewers carried waste oil containing

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by ...

from the local

Mercury Marine Mercury Marine is a marine engine division of Brunswick Corporation headquartered in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The main product line is outboard motors. It also produces the MerCruiser line of sterndrives and inboard motors. Some manufactur ...

plant to the Cedarburg Mill's pond, upstream of Concordia Mill. The contamination also spread downstream to Concordia Mill's pond, where it settled into the sediment. In 1986, PCBs were found in the millpond's fish. In 1994 Cedar Creek became an

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agen ...

site, and in 1996 the mill's dam washed out, washing contaminated sediment downstream and complicating the cleanup of Cedar Creek.

References

{{commons category, Concordia Mills, Hamilton, Ozaukee County Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin Limestone buildings in the United States Industrial buildings completed in 1853 Grinding mills in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin Removed dams in Wisconsin

See also

References