Morningstar Mill is a heritage site located in

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

, Ontario, Canada. The site includes the Morningstar Mill, a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

, the home of the Morningstar family, a barn used for blacksmith demonstrations, and the Decew Falls gorge along the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...

. The site is operated by the volunteer group Friends of Morningstar Mill and owned by the City of St. Catharines. The

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

was restored to working condition in 1992.

Early history

After the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, landowner John DeCou built a stone-grist mill with an overhead

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

at Decew Falls. The property was sold in 1894, after the first

Welland Canal The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, and part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. The canal traverses the Niagara Peninsula between Port Weller, Ontario, Port Weller on Lake Ontario, and Port Colborne on Lak ...

was constructed, as the mill no longer had an adequate water supply. In 1872, a new mill was built on the foundation of the former DeCou Mill. This new mill, called Mountain Mills, was built by Robert Chappel. The new stone-grist mill was turbine-powered instead of water-powered. Mountain Mills was purchased by the St. Catharines Waterworks in 1875 to prevent claims of water loss supply when the Beverdams Creek above Decew Falls was dammed. The mill was sold to Wilson Morningstar after water supply was restored. Morningstar would receive 1/12 of the flour or feed produced by the gristmill as payment. Morningstar also operated a blacksmith and carpentry shop on the property. In 1895, Morningstar rebuilt after a fire destroyed everything except the stone structure.

Later history

The location was reopened as a tourist attraction in 1962. Morningstar died in 1933 and his family operated the mill after his death. In 1983, the property was purchased by the City of St. Catharines. In 1992, Friends of Morningstar Mill was founded by volunteers with the intention of restoring the gristmill to working order, successfully completing the project within that same year. In 2020, the Morningstar Mill was closed to the public due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most cases over the course o ...

. In 2024, the city rejected a proposal that would transfer ownership of the property to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. The mill was also closed that year to complete extensive renovations worth two million dollars, with plans to reopen in 2025.

References

External links

Morningstar Mill
{{St. Catharines Flour mills in Canada Tourist attractions in Ontario Watermills in Canada Buildings and structures in St. Catharines History of the Regional Municipality of Niagara History of agriculture in Ontario Industrial buildings in Ontario

Early history

Later history

See also

References

External links