Greenfield Mills, IN: 1840s Flour Mill and Dam on Fawn River

(Satellite)

Mike Snow posted two images with the comment:

This morning the Indiana Album (A Indy based Historical Group) posted the postcard of Greenfield Mills which is on the Fawn River several miles west of Orland and just inside of LaGrange County, I knew my travels today would take me near the area and I decided to go see if I could match a current photo with a photo from 105 years ago..

Greenfield Mills, LaGrange County - Photographer C. Rhodes documented this little burg near the Indiana/Michigan line in about 1915. The hard-to-read caption states: "View of West Street looking west / Greenfield Mills / No. 8."

The three-story 1840s mill beyond the church is Greenfield Mills, located on the banks of the Fawn River at 10505 East 750 North -- now with a Howe address. The water-powered flour mill, manufacturers of New Wrinkel Flour (later New Rinkel Flour), was operated by several generations of the Henry Rinkel family from 1904 until 2015.

Jim Wagner: I wish there was some way for them to re-open as their flour made the best pancakes etc. you’ve ever tasted. I believe they closed due to the bank not loaning them the money to raise Glouton free flour. Would also like to back in store and buy some of the historical items they had for sale in there.

Wendy Spade Petty: My dad lived about a mile from Greenfield Mills- still does. He would go to the store when it was operating at the time. We used to fish in the mill pond and catch catfish mainly when I was a child.

John S. Petry: I've canoed there from my waterfront on Jimmerson Lake; you have 2 or 3 portages, the first is the dam at Nevada Mills, about a half a mile west of my place.

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Clarence Davis commented on Mike's post
I snapped a series of photos there in 2007.

The dam is still intact. No street view driver has visited this area.

Satellite

At first, I was surprised how small the pond was. But after I saw this map, I realized the pond is large, but most of it is covered with algae. I wonder if this algae smells.

USGS

That is a lot of algae. Too bad they can't find a commercial use for algae.

Satellite

I've driven down IN-120 before going to a family reunion. I'm going to have to do that again and get off the beaten path. I noticed there are Ontario, Nasby and Mongo Dams on the Pigeon River.

When the satellite photos were taken, something must have been encouraging algae growth. I checked out the public access to Appleman Lake, a place I have visited many times as a kid. I don't remember seeing algae on this lake before. Yet a satellite image shows it now has a lot of it. Climate change? Too much fertilizer on the fields???? Now that I'm thinking about it, it doesn't have algae, but it does have lily pads. Maybe that is what is on the Greenfield Lake.

Satellite