Benson Grist Mill is a restoration-replica museum located in Tooele County, Utah in the western United States, which allows visitors to see the inner workings of a latter-nineteenth-century pioneer gristmill.
E.T.Benson acquired sole ownership of the mill from the corporation as is attested by the following bill of sale copied from the records of the county.
A favorite expression of the early settlers, when the safety of their possessions was in question was, 'As safe as flour in the lower mill!'
In 1850, Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), authorized Ezra T. Benson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to develop a mill site in the north end of the Tooele Valley, to serve the communities being proposed for that area.
In 1922 a former Grantsville, Utah resident, J. Reuben Clark (who was living in Salt Lake City, where he practiced law), purchased the mill property.
[5] In 1983 a Stansbury Park resident, John "Jack" Smith, formed a committee to acquire and restore the historic mill.
Restoration of the mill and construction or repair of the other facilities and structures at the site were largely completed by volunteer effort, with financial assistance from the county.
The Bolinder Blacksmith Shop, which was built in nearby Grantsville, Utah nearly a century ago, was moved onto the Mill site in 1987.
Andrew had come to Tooele County in 1866 with his father, who managed the nearby Grantsville Woolen Mill (the walls of which are still standing and visible from Highway 36).