{"nrhp_refnum":"70000525","name":"Indian Mill","other_names":["Indian Mill State Memorial"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3.5 mi. NE of Upper Sandusky on Crane Twnshp. Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Upper Sandusky","county":"Wyandot County","state":"OH","lat":40.86338501900008,"lon":-83.25429773099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-11-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story oak-framed gristmill built in 1861 on the Sandusky River, about 3.5 miles northeast of Upper Sandusky in Crane Township, Wyandot County, Ohio. It is a state memorial owned by the State of Ohio.","why_significant":"The mill is significant mainly as a reflection of early Ohio milling, with a design unique in the state that uses covered bridge construction with cross trusses secured by site-forged steel rods and bolts. It has a secondary, derived association with the Wyandot Indians, because it replaced mills the U.S. government built in 1820 for them. The original mills stood 300 feet upstream and are gone.","narrative":"Indian Mill is a three-story, oak-framed gristmill on the Sandusky River northeast of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Built in 1861 by millwright Lewis Rummel for owner George Myers, it measures 30 by 40 feet. Its construction is unique in Ohio, borrowing covered bridge methods, with cross trusses held by steel rods and bolts forged on the site, which made the building unusually sturdy. Three turbines were installed after the water turbine was patented in 1862. The name comes from earlier mills, a gristmill and a sawmill built upstream in 1820 by the U.S. government in appreciation of Wyandot loyalty during the War of 1812. Those mills served the Wyandot reservation until the tribe's removal to Kansas in 1843. The John Finkle family later ran the present mill for more than 50 years. It was given to the State of Ohio in 1953, restored in 1968, and now serves as a museum of early Ohio milling, though low river levels prevent it from operating.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1861)","architect_builder":"Lewis Rummel, millwright, hired by George Myers; restoration under D. W. Garber","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored by The Ohio Historical Society in 1968 and open to the public as a museum of early milling; condition listed as good. Lack of water prevents operation as a working mill.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.120433-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/70000525.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000525/c6b6bc2dac-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000525/c6b6bc2dac-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wyandot_Indian_Mill,_northeastern_corner.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wyandot_Indian_Mill,_northeastern_corner.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992078","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q96968800"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/wyandot-county/indian-mill-70000525/"}