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Located on the south bank of the Fraser River, at the fork of River Road and Brown Road (which is now 240th Street) in Fort Langley, B.C., was the important Hossack Mill. Built in the 1880’s, it was the first grist mill built on the mainland of British Columbia and the second grist mill built west of Toronto, Ontario. The mill had been a significant economic factor in the area during its day.

James Hossack built the mill from materials at hand, including the grist stone (two of which are kept at the Langley Centennial Museum). The stones weigh 1,000 and 1,300 pounds respectively and measure 54 inches in diameter and are 12-18 inches thick. The mill stones were quarried at Yale around 1890 and were barged down the Fraser River to the mill site. Hossack also built a wharf adjoining the mill, where river boats could tie up and unload wheat and flour. A shed alongside the mill housed a 3-foot diameter by 12-foot-long steam boiler, which powered the mill by burning wood. The mill was moved a couple of hundred feet south of River Road and east of Brown Road near the turn of the century.

The mill had a large crew and was used to grind wheat that was at the time grown on the Milner Flats into flour for the Hudson Bay Company post. The finished products were exported to Russians in Alaska. The flour was sacked in 100 and sometimes 120-pound bags. The mill was also used to produce custom ground flour for local farmers. The farmers of the area also took advantage of the equipment to have feed ground for their livestock. The farmers in the area were so pleased with the idea of such a mill, they shared in the cost of the mill with Mr. Hossack, making the Hossack Mill the first business subsidized by Langley Municipality farmers.

Activity at the mill dwindled and then ceased when Hossack returned to Scotland before 1914, leaving the business to nephews who were not interested. The boiler shed became a woodshed behind the mill and the mill’s steam boiler was cut down and turned into a heater by Fort Langley blacksmith, Mr. Reid, in the 1920s. The business subsided to nothing by the 1920s and the mill was put on the auction block at a tax sale. It was bought by Joseph Morrison, the eldest son of Kenneth Morrison, as a place for his retirement. Joseph built a house to the east of the mill, along River Road, where he lived for some time.

Later, the Hossack Mill withstood the great flood of 1948 that brought the Fraser River over its banks and put large areas of the Fraser Valley, including Fort Langley and Glen Valley, underwater. Though the mill withstood the flood, it had been severely damaged. The mill was given to the Native Sons of Fort Langley organization by Joe Morrison, with the hope of restoring it as a museum, but renovations were too expensive, and the building was finally taken down in the late 1950’s. Before the Hossack mill was dismantled, the mill’s cradle was moved to the Farm Machinery Museum in Fort Langley.

See From: sawmills
See Also: logging, logging camps