The mill, constructed between 1867 & 1869, was a colaboration between three entreprenoirs. The partnership consisted of James O. Crosby, John Thompson, & J.P. Dickinson. The mill measures 45'X 60'X 90' tall from its base comprising six stories.

The grist mill, saw mill, cooperage, inn with its stable and icehouse comprised an area which had the beginnings of a townsite in Hastings Bottom, later changed to Motor. Stonemasons of German heritage were hired to build the mill using limestone quarried from the bluff above the millsite on the Turkey River. The stone was lowered in cable cars, sort of an inclined railway.

Motor Mill 2012 Progress is being made with the replacement of windows

The 2.5 story cooperage has a 24'X 44' footprint with 24" thick walls. It produced barrels with which to ship flour & corn meal. The second floor is fashioned from black walnut, the joists measuring 3"X 14" on 16" beams.

An inn and stable was constructed, these also of native limestone. Also an icehouse to provide cool drinks in the inn during hot summer months and to keep perishables safe. Farmers brought their grain & corn to be ground to the mill, secluded away down in this river valley. Many, coming from greater distance, would stay at the ten room inn, where rooms and meals were available, and the horses could be stabled in the 40'X 44' limestone stable measuring 15' to the eaves and 2.5' thick walls.

View from the cooperage past the mill. The two span steel girder bridge over the Turkey River, the far span having fallen into the river about 2000, is immediately to the left of the cooperage.

Motor Mill 2012 Progress is being made with the replacement of windows

An Upstream view of Motor Mill with its sawmill, mill pond, cooperage, and once-existent lime kiln. From Historical Artist Gordon Callison's "Living Scenes A Century or Two Ago," Collection.

A Downstream version of Clayton County, Iowa's Motor Mill Hamlet; beside important buildings are descriptions; done in pen and Black India ink. Prints of both drawings are available from Motor Mill.org

The front of the grist mill. The walls of the first/basement level are five feet thick. These taper down so that the fourth floor walls are two & half feet thick, & the last floor has two foot thick walls. A fairly stout building.

Motor Mill 2012 Progress is being made with the replacement of windows and power to the mill.

The 200 foot wide and 12 feet high dam was about 50 feet upstream and a 50 foot flume brought Turkey Creek water into the mills basement where the four turbines transferred the power to the grindstones. A minimum of 250 hp was most always available to grind about 1500 bushels of grain/week.

The 33'X 45' 2 foot thick-walled inn had been filled with flood water over halfway up the lower story windows from an late May-early June freshet of the Turkey River in 2004. The water stain can be seen on the outer walls of the inn. Much the same happened in 1875, when a railroad that was started to connect Motor with McGreger further north was washed out, effectively eliminating that project. Cinch bugs devestated the midwest in 1867, 1871, and 1887. The first was not critical for Motor Mill as it was just starting to be built, but the 1867 and the two bad infestation later were a death knell to many small midwest mills including Motor Mill. Operations ceased in the 1880's, the mill sold for $12,000, and the mill was stripped of equipment. The complex was part of a dairy farm operation from the 1930's to 1982.

An interesting rock outcrop along the road about a mile north of the mill. The complex was purchased from the longstanding owners, about 80 years, in 1983 by the Clayton County Conservatioon Board. More land was obtained ten years later to provide a total of 155 acres including the mill complex of buildings. It will be exciting to see what this early milling community will develop into in the foreseeable future. the Motor Mill Townsite was entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Picture of Motor Mill taken in summer 2009 while kayaking the Turkey River