Thompson’s Mills State Heritage Site

This historic site is fascinating! Even more so if you love history, machinery, ducks, water, old buildings, chickens, gears, turbines… oh man what an amazing adventure we had today. Such an incredible piece of history, thank you Oregon Park service and all the volunteers that make this structure whirr to life. Elaine was an awesome and incredibly knowledgeable tour guide. Thank you all so much.

This place is very cool. The volunteer guide, Elaine was very informative and very enthusiastic. She peppered her historical narrative and explanation of the equipment with a lot of stories from people who worked there. She was also very funny.
The mill started in 1858 and ran till 2004!!! The long history of owners and how they changed over time is very interesting. Including how they worked with surrounding farmers as the mill owned pretty much the entire water rights for the Calapooia River. Elaine even went into how the state had to deal with PGE in an attempt to get out of an electrical generation contract in order to help the farmers out with water. All this water rights stuff is a very interesting western US only phenomenon.
Not only did Elaine give a great tour she then took us to the basement where we could look down into the mill race and see the turbines. They are in the bottom of the race each with a drive line that comes up into the building and drive one or more large wheels with a large belts that runs various equipment throughout the building. Elaine then opened the head gate and let the water flow into the mill race which then started the wheels running the large belt. So this equipment from late 1800’s, early 1900’s still works and runs!!!
The only downside I want to mention is the issue with self-​guided tours. In the summer the water now falls below the intake for their fire suppression system. So you cannot do a self-​guided tour. You can only go inside the mill with a guided tour. So try to plan to be there at the times they do guided tours: 10am noon and 2pm. Although Elaine did take us on a tour at 3pm as well.
This is a place not to be missed by anyone interested in history, machinery and equipment nerds!!!

This place is great! The mill is very interesting, it’s an old water driven grain mill that, while a little dusty, is still in pretty much full functioning condition (they will even fire it up for visitors sometimes). The old mansion is really neat too.
They have some of the same types of farm animals, plants, and trees growing in the garden/​orchard behind the house that were used as a food source while the mill was running.
There are rumors that the mill is haunted. One of the family hung himself there a long time ago.
Anyway, if you are headed south on I5 through Oregon it’s worth taking the tiny detour to go check this place out!

Great tour of the mill. By appointment, they will open the flood gates and let you see the water activate the old water wheels and machinery. Allow an hour at least to take it all in.

Well worth a visit. Very informative tour with hands on activity

Come witness the ingenuity and horror of nineteenth century industry!
I found out about this old flour mill turned museum through Unilocal,saw pictures of chickens and thought «Hey, let’s take the kiddos this weekend!» Sure enough, we pull up and there’s a large turkey making that weird alien «gobble-​gobble» noise. The kids were immediately impressed. It didn’t take long to find the chickens we saw in the photos and it took even less time for my three boys to chase them. «Don’t chase my chickens!» the ranger yelled. Alright, that’s less fun than chasing them but I guess we can refrain. «You wanna have a tour?» she asked. «Sure, I guess? Is it an hour? Because if so, that sounds painful since I have five kids.» (Alright, I didn’t say that. But I thought it.)
So we go on the tour which features all sorts of Victorian era machinery not fit for human hands. Anyway, the kids got to touch all of that stuff in all of its amputating glory. Big leather belts that go «WhirWhirWhir» and rusty chains going «CrickCrickCrick,» it’s all here so you too can witness life before Osha and health inspectors.
We got to see the old bathroom who’s toilet emptied right into the river below! Asking about this the ranger opened a hatch in the floor, a hatch mind you, large enough for any of my children to plummet 20′ to raging turbines of antiquity below. What fun!
Next, we got to venture into the basement where all of the ghosts of child labor are sure to still lurk after dark. Here my children had the joy of walking around missing floorboards and peering down dark shafts into the river and moving shafts of ironwork that power the medieval ironwork above. Do you think I held onto my children as they leaned over the river while large 100 year old turbines spun wildly below so they could get a good view? I sure did, buddy.
We ventured upstairs where we could see how they constructed the mill. Apparently they used a method that doesn’t require nails. I thought about that and wondered if that’s why the mill itself felt like it was on the verge of collapse. 150 years, the Oregon rain, and tons of spinning machinery rarely do wonders for structural integrity.
So the tour ended and we were duly impressed. The kids thought the whole thing was fantastic while I was amazed we all got out alive with limbs still intact. The turkey, have freed itself from its pen, blocked our escape making that dreadful noise and, I swear, trying to intimidate our 12 passenger Ford E150.
Highly recommended for people trying to show their children the kinds of working conditions they would have endured 100 years ago and threatening them with sending them to India should they step out of line; I’m sure similar conditions still exist there. It’s also free, which is good and I recommend it as punishment for juvenile offenders.

This is a very unique state park. It’s actually a functioning grain mill.
Normally I avoid guided tours like the plague, but the first time I came by here I was the only visitor and had walked up when the ranger was supposed to be starting a tour. I felt kind of bad there was no one else there, so I talked with him and decided on taking the guided tour. I’m glad I did!
The ranger was a younger guy but was very knowledgeable about this history and the operation of the grain mill. At one point he even turned on some of the equipment to show how it worked.
The park is a work in progress so when you stop by the employees will likely be working on new displays or repairing the mill.
Whether you’re a history nerd or just interested in how an old water-​powered grain mill works definitely stop by.

We stopped here on a whim, playing GPS roulette. We were afraid that our 9 year old was going to be bored to tears, especially after we heard the tour could take up to 1.5 hours, but that never happened. The tour was great, every boys dream to put on a hard hat and take a tour of heavy equipment. He got to make flour on grinding stones, see how the grain silos worked and they even turn on the power and run all the machinery. They said that in the winter, the turbines are used to generate power. We had a great tour guide and our hour + long tour never dragged or felt too long. This is the kind of museum that really shows kids (and adults) the best of living history.