Cottonwood Station

Welcome to Meriden’s unique living history frontier town with a three-story flour mill, a sawmill, blacksmith shop, livery barn, print shop, post office, historic 1870 bridge, historic 1854 log cabin, 1895 church, and various exhibits. Cottonwood Station hosts various festivals each month during the summer with live demonstrations of what life was like before the engine.

FLOUR MILL

During the 1880’s the flour milling industry experienced development of the roller mill which could mill grain finer and faster then the stone method which dates back as early as 70 B.C. If flour mills had not converted to the roller mill process by the 1890’s they were not able to compete in the industry.

A flour mill the size of this building would have contained 4 rollermills and produced 50 barrels per day (24 hrs.) (a barrel of flour weighs 196 lbs.)

For historic and display purposes we have combined three different types of 1880 era machines in the mill building.

The Starr 30″ stone mill was built between 1850 – 1880. We purchased this mill in North Carolina. The mill, like all machinery, in the mill building was completely disassembled worn parts replaced or rebuilt, and wooden parts were stripped and refinished.