THE HISTORIC CEDAR Creek Grist Mill near Woodland relies on donations to stay open. Volunteers collect donations at the door each weekend and also sell various recipe books, postcards and flour sacks. The suggested donations are $6 for a small sack of flour, $12 for a recipe book, $6 for a flour sack and 50 cents for a postcard. The historic mill is open each weekend from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
GREG KEHN, A volunteer with the Friends of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, helps run the historic mill’s working museum for a group of visitors on Sat., June 27.
THE HISTORIC, 140-YEAR-OLD Cedar Creek Grist Mill is the only grain-grinding mill in Washington that has kept its original structural integrity, is water-powered and grinds with stones. The mill is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is located at 43907 NE Grist Mill Road, near Woodland.
VOLUNTEERS AT THE historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill near Woodland serve strawberry shortcake made from freshly ground, whole wheat flour and local Woodland strawberries, at the mill’s special Strawberry Shortcake event on Sat., June 27. Pictured is Mary Davis of Amboy (left), who met her husband at the mill seven years ago, and Beth Goeble, who has been volunteering at the mill for two years.
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE WAS a huge hit at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill’s special shortcake-tasting event on Sat., June 27. Volunteers made the shortcakes from whole wheat flour, ground at the grist mill, and topped the cakes with a delicious mash of locally grown strawberries and maple syrup.
THE CEDAR CREEK Grist Mill is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Private tours, for 10 or more people, may be arranged at other times by calling (360) 247-7413. For more information, visit cedarcreekgristmill.org.
There is something magical about the historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill near Woodland.
You can feel it on the eight-mile stretch of road that winds its way from Interstate 5 to the 140-year-old water-powered grain mill. Just a few minutes into the drive, the sweltering heat starts to cool. The air becomes softer, silkier. As you work your way toward the mill, over the Lewis River, past the farmlands of North Clark County and finally, across the covered bridge that leads to the mill’s front door, modern-day worries slide away and that tension in your shoulders disappears.
It’s as if you’ve been transported to an easier, less chaotic world where strangers greet each other bond over a sublime piece of whole wheat shortcake made from just-ground wheat, real butter and farm-fresh eggs.
Mary Davis, of Amboy, understands the magic. After all, the grist mill played a major role in Davis’ love life.
“This is where I met my husband, Charlie,” Davis explained. “We both came to the cider press event.”
The young couple met in October of 2008 at the mill’s most popular special event – an apple cider pressing held on the last Saturday each October. They started dating right away, and married three years later.
Today, Davis is a part of a small, dedicated group of volunteers who keep the historic mill alive. On this particular day – the last Saturday in June – Davis is helping other volunteers dole out thick slices of shortcake made from whole wheat ground at the mill and prepared by at least six different volunteers. Davis has purchased local Woodland strawberries and mashed them with a little maple syrup to accompany the luscious, buttery shortcakes. Visitors from up and down the West Coast are sitting together on the mill’s back porch, enjoying the fresh air, the nearby creek and the delicious strawberry shortcake.
“It’s fantastic,” says Betty Jorgenson, of Wishram, about the historic mill, which has been on the National Registery of Historic Places, a list of historic places deemed worthy of preservation, since the 1960s. “I am so envious of everyone who has the strength and energy to keep this place going.”
Like many visitors to the mill, Jorgenson came with her daughter, a resident of the Hockinson area near Battle Ground, to escape the late June heat and sample the fresh-made strawberry shortcake. Nearby, a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter from southern California sit beside one another on the mill’s back porch, enjoying the cool shade.
“We came to visit my sister, who lives in Battle Ground, and I told her I’d like to see Bob’s Red Mill, and she said we should visit this mill, too,” says Kim Engler, of San Juan Capistrano, California, who was visiting the mill with her mother, Pauline Berger, and 15-year-old daughter, Gaby Engler. “We watched the demo and had some strawberry shortcake. This place has such an awesome history.”
Enger’s sister, Mary Cleveland, of Battle Ground, has brought her two young grandchildren, 7-year-old Harper and 4-year-old Henry, to the strawberry shortcake event.
“I haven’t been here for years,” Cleveland says. “It’s so nice and the shortcake was delicious!”
After sampling the goods, visitors are free to grab recipes for the shortcake, which is made from whole, natural ingredients. They can even purchase bags of fresh-ground flour from the mill. But, warns a miller who is giving a demonstration inside the mill’s working museum, be careful to put that flour in the freezer – because the mill doesn’t remove the wheat germ, the most nutritious part of a grain of wheat, the flour can spoil, so you want to keep it somewhere cool. The volunteer miller says he stores his in the freezer for up to three months.
Also for sale at the mill are various recipe books, postcards and flour sacks. The suggested donations are $6 for a small sack of flour, $12 for a recipe book, $6 for a flour sack and 50 cents for a postcard. The donations help keep the mill running and go toward restoration projects.
The nonprofit Friends group restored the nearly 140-year-old mill in the 1980s, replacing rotting beams with wood felled by historically accurate broad axes, and constructing a massive, 650-foot flume up Cedar Creek to power the grain mill. Today, the mill is a popular tourist attraction on the weekends, drawing people from all over the country who have come to see the only water-powered, grain-grinding mill in Washington that still uses French mill stones to grind the grain and still has its original structure.
The mill, located at 43907 NE Grist Mill Road about eight miles east of Woodland, is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Private tours, for 10 or more people, may be arranged at other times by calling (360) 247-7413.
The mill hosts special events like the strawberry shortcake tasting on the last Saturday of the month, May through October. Look for Blueberry Pancake Day, with samples of blueberry pancakes topped with fresh blueberries and covered in blueberry syrup on Sat., July 25, and Cornbread Day, with cornbread made from fresh-ground corn, on Sat., Aug. 29. For more information, visit cedarcreekgristmill.org.
