Stettler Estonian Pioneers Flour Mill

Homesteaders in the Linda Hall district needed to travel to Red Deer for food and farm supplies. They went by horse or oxen and wagon, and the return trip was four or five days. When Magnus Tipman and Hans Johansen arrived in the early 1900s, they set about designing and building a flour mill on the Johansen homestead.

The mill was made primarily of wood. A fan, made with four blades and covered with canvas, powered it. The blades were attached to an axle; the "Big Gear" was mounted to this. This gear drove the pinion gear, which drove the upper grinding stone. The teeth of the big gear were made of hardwood and sawn to size. The back part of the tooth was rounded to fit a hole in the gear wheel; the gear tooth was driven into the hole and pegged.

A small building housed the mill, and the whole structure could be moved so that the mill could face the wind.

The mill produced wheat and rye flour as well as pearled barley, which was used for porridge and an Estonian delicacy, barley sausage.

Following the deaths of Hans Johansen and Magnus Tipman, Magnus's son John took over the operation of the mill. Sometime in 1920s, John dismantled the mill and relocated it on land he had purchased. Here, the mill was powered by a one cylinder engine. It operated on occasion until 1945, when it was dismantled once more and moved to the Stettler Museum.