DEL NORTE – With the Downtown Revitalization Project getting underway in Del Norte, the Rio Grande County Museum and Del Norte Public Library partnered on another project and saved two cherished monuments that would have been without a home.
While planning for the new sidewalk installation, engineers noted that both the Fremont and Del Norte Flouring Mill wheels in front of the library would need to be moved. Both monuments have been in front of the library for well over 70 years and were placed in front of the library by the local Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) sometime in the 1950s.
The wheels were made with local quarry stone sourced from the original stone quarry outside of Del Norte. The grist wheels were used to make the first white flour in Del Norte in 1876. The land which the flouring mill was on was owned by J. Cary French but after an extended visit to Kansas for the birth of his daughter, Salome French, his claim on the land was jumped by Paul Steele.
Over the years, the land exchanged hands and in October of 1876 the mill was erected after $16,000 was raised by the Town of Del Norte. The Oct. 6, 1876, Del Norte Prospector reads, “Del Norte is going to get its flouring mill. Outside the town a $16,000 fund was raised to build the mill and Sam Kaucher, from Denver, was here to find a site and build the mill. Farmers are being urged to plant more wheat.”
The Del Norte Flouring Mill was born but it didn’t last long. Over the next 10 years, the mill fell into disrepair and was forgotten in the boom days of Summitville and the following silver boom in Creede. The wheels were moved at one point and were later found behind the library when the DAR organization came to install the Fremont Monument, according to sources.
The Fremont Monument is a Colorado Historic marker, marking the area in which Fremont and his doomed men camped as they wandered into the La Garita Mountains in search of the fastest and easiest route to reach California in 1848. The monument is on the state’s historic register as monument No. 152 and represents a significant part of the Valley’s unique history.
Both monuments have found a new home at the museum and are on display for people to see thanks to the many efforts of the Town of Del Norte Public Works Director Kevin Larimore, Del Norte Public Library Board President Glynnis Williams and the Rio Grande County Museum.
